\ 


I 


4 


( 


THE  BARTERED  BIRTHRIGHT 


FORTY  BRIEF  EXPOSITORY  ADDRESSES 

ON  THE 
LIFE  OF  JACOB 

ffor  tbe  of  Xent 


BY  THE 

REV.  F.  A.  D.  LAUNT,  D.D. 

RECTOR  OF  ST.  DAVID’S  CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

31  West  Twenty-Third  Street 


I 


Copyright,  1901 


BY 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  CO. 

BS5%° 


J3i3 


Ubc  Iknfcfeerbocfccr  press,  ,Wcw  IJJorfe 


7  Slpiol. 


To 

ORLANDO  CREASE 


PREFACE. 


OTHING  ages  so  fast  as  a  sermon.  There  is  a 


1  N  steady,  if  limited,  demand  for  new  Lenten  Read¬ 
ings,  modern  and  moderate  in  tone  and  at  the  same  time 
loyal  to  the  Scriptures  and  Creeds  of  the  Church. 

I  have  tried  to  make  these  addresses  interesting  to  a 
week-day  congregation.  For  this,  in  many  instances, 
style,  method,  and  personal  preference  have  been  sacri¬ 
ficed  ;  something,  it  may  be,  of  the  dignity  of  a  former 
generation;  nothing,  I  trust,  of  doctrinal  soundness  or 
of  spiritual  earnestness  and  wisdom.  The  story  helps, 
although  each  address  is  complete  in  itself.  I  have  used 
the  commentaries,  ancient  and  modern,  and  several 
monographs  on  the  narrative.1  Some  verses  not  other¬ 
wise  credited  are  by  Archbishop  Alexander. 

During  the  past  fall  and  winter  a  number  of  type¬ 
written  copies  of  these  addresses  have  been  read  to  Sun¬ 
day  congregations  by  students  in  two  of  our  theological 
seminaries  and  the  approval  of  these  young  men  probably 
has  had  its  influence  with  my  publishers,  as  it  has  been 
an  encouragement  to  me,  in  giving  them  a  more  perma¬ 
nent  form. 

I  hope  that  lay-readers  may  find  the  book  serviceable 

1  Indebtedness  is  acknowledged  to  four  books  by  eminent  English  au¬ 
thors  :  Isaac  and  Jacob,  George  Rawlinson,  M.A.  ;  The  Hebrew  Twins, 
Samuel  Cox,  D.D.  ;  Israel,  A  Prince  of  God,  F.  B.  Meyer,  B.A.  ;  The 
Book  of  Genesis,  Marcus  Dods,  D.D.  For  suggestions  on  the  wrestling 
at  Peniel  I  owe  thanks  for  a  sermon  by  each  of  two  distinguished  American 
preachers,  the  Rev.  Charles  S.  Olmsted,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  Edwin  B. 
Coe,  D.D. 


V 


VI 


Preface. 


for  other  seasons  as  well  as  for  Lent.  A  friend  has  sug¬ 
gested  that  these  expositions  might  be  useful  in  parish 
and  Sunday-school  libraries.  I  have  only  to  add  that 
instead  of  finding  the  Scripture  narrative  too  slight  for 
my  purpose  there  has  been  difficulty  in  covering  the 
ground  and  that  the  chapters  are  specially  helpful  for 
Lenten  study,  as  may  be  seen  from  a  glance  at  the  titles 
of  the  addresses,  particularly  of  those  for  Holy  Week. 

Philadelphia, 

Thanksgiving  Day,  1900. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


I. 

The 

Beginning 

• 

• 

1 

2. 

The 

Brothers 

• 

7 

3- 

The 

Barter  . 

• 

13 

4- 

The 

Birthright 

• 

19 

5- 

The 

Plot 

• 

25 

6. 

The 

Counter- Plot 

31 

7- 

The 

Stolen  Blessing 

37 

8. 

The 

Bitter  Cry 

• 

43 

9- 

The 

Anger  of  Esau 

49 

10. 

The 

Daughters 

of  Heth 

55 

11. 

The 

Dream 

• 

6 1 

12. 

The 

Ladder  . 

• 

67 

i3- 

The 

Promise  . 

• 

73 

14. 

The 

Awakening 

• 

79 

i5* 

The 

Vow 

• 

85 

16. 

The 

Altar 

• 

9i 

i7- 

Serving  for  Rachel 

97 

18. 

The 

Return  . 

• 

103 

19. 

The 

Pursuit  . 

• 

109 

20. 

Jacob’s  Prayer 

• 

115 

21. 

The 

Mercies  of 

God 

121 

22. 

Two 

Bands 

• 

127 

23- 

God 

Wrestling 

WITH 

Jacob 

i33 

24. 

Peniel 

• 

•  • 

x39 

vii 


VII 1 


Contents 


25.  The  Prince  of  God 

26.  Strange  Gods  Put  away 

27.  The  Oak  of  Shechem  . 

28.  Bethel  Revisited  . 

29.  Three  Graves 

30.  The  Sale  of  Joseph 

31.  The  Famine-Time  . 

32.  The  Wagons  of  Egypt. 

33.  The  Land  of  Goshen  . 

34.  The  Two  Sons  of  Joseph 

35.  Unstable  as  Water 

36.  The  Sceptre  of  Judah 

37.  Grieved  by  the  Archers 

38.  Thy  Salvation 

39.  He  Yielded  up  the  Ghost 

40.  The  Cave  of  Machpelah 


PAGE 

J45 

151 

*57 

163 

169 

i75 

181 

187 

I93 

199 

205 

211 

217 

223 

229 

235 


THE  BARTERED  BIRTHRIGHT 


* 


THE  BARTERED  BIRTHRIGHT 


THE  BEGINNING. 

ASH  WEDNESDAY. 

“  His  hand  took  hold  on  Esau’s  heel ;  and  his  name  was  called  Jacob.” 
— Gen.  xxv.  26. 

IN  the  journal  of  that  most  human  ecclesiastic,  Dean 
Swift,  we  find  the  following  entry:  “  Lent  has  come 
again,  and  I  hate  Lent.  I  hate  furmity  and  sour,  devout 
faces.”  And  he  is  quoted  as  saying:  “  But  I  suppose 
that  for  most  of  us  there  is,  during  the  Lenten  season, 
a  breath  of  God  upon  the  air,  an  influence  of  which  we 
cannot  wholly  rid  ourselves,  and  alas,  the  inmost  reflec¬ 
tion  in  our  hearts  from  time  to  time  is  that  Lent  is  a 
bore.  ” 

In  the  twentieth  century  our  Lenten  dinners  are  sel¬ 
dom  limited  to  the  old  London  dishes  of  “  furmity  ”  or 
“  herb  porridge,”  and  we  have  learned  that  “  sour 
faces  ”  are  not  signs  of  growth  in  the  Gospel  graces  of 
faith,  hope,  and  charity.  Nevertheless  there  are  many 
who  still  hate  Lent,  and  more,  it  may  be,  whose  inmost 
reflection  is  that  “  Lent  is  a  bore.”  There  are  those  to 
whom  the  holy  season,  which  they  observe  merely  out  of 
respect  for  fashion  or  custom,  means  the  temporary  sus¬ 
pension  of  the  worldly  gaieties  upon  which  their  hearts 
are  fixed.  There  are  others  who  hear  in  the  Ash  Wed- 


2 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


nesday  church  bell  the  unwelcome  voice  of  conscience; 
they  are  reminded  of  resolutions  formed  in  the  months 
gone  by  that  with  the  coming  Lent  they  would  turn  over 
a  new  leaf.  The  habits,  thoughts,  negligences,  compan¬ 
ionships,  which  were  sapping  the  spiritual  life  would  in 
Lent,  they  had  promised  themselves,  be  renounced. 
Now  the  day  is  at  hand,  it  will  not  wait,  and  the  effort 
to  break  away  from  the  evil  thing  disquiets  them ;  they 
groan  in  spirit  as  they  strive  to  force  the  feeble  will  into 
prompt  and  resolute  action.  But  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  great  majority  of  those  who  will  keep  Lent  realize 
that  a  breath  of  God  is  on  the  air,  and  welcome  the  re¬ 
tirement,  the  multiplied  services,  the  inspiration  of  the 
hearty  companionship  of  a  multitude  throughout  the 
world  who  at  this  time  endeavor  to  strengthen  character 
and  purify  and  sweeten  the  innermost  springs  of  the 
spiritual  life.  To  many  such,  however,  there  is  some 
inward  dissatisfaction  in  the  thought  that  there  is  likely 
to  be  a  tedious  reiteration  in  the  themes  of  the  medita¬ 
tions  and  exhortations  presented  at  this  season.  The 
best  Lenten  books  and  the  best  Lenten  sermons  seem  to 
them  to  follow  well-beaten  lines.  To  take  up  once  more 
during  the  earlier  weeks  of  Lent  the  temptations  and 
the  sins  of  the  appetites  of  the  body,  and  the  physical 
sufferings  of  Christ  in  the  closing  weeks,  has  a  sugges¬ 
tion  of  triteness  rather  than  of  enlivening  interest,  and 
while  they  would  not  venture,  perhaps,  to  speak  of  the 
discussion  of  these  subjects  as  a  bore,”  it  does  seem 
unattractive,  somehow,  from  its  very  familiarity,  and 
they  have  a  feeling  that  there  is  room  for  other,  if  not 
more  vital,  themes. 

For  those  who  have  kept  many  Lents  a  fresh  line  of  re¬ 
ligious  study  may  be  acceptable.  For  beginners  it  may 


The  Beginning. 


3 


be  an  encouragement  to  go  on  next  year  to  more  abstract 
and  doctrinal  subjects.  And  so  this  Lent  you  are  in¬ 
vited  to  read  with  me  the  struggle  which  one  human  soul 
made  to  be  true  to  himself  and  to  his  God — to  trace  out 
the  steps  by  which  Jacob,  the  Heel-catcher,  the  Sup- 
planter,  became  Israel,  the  Prince  of  God. 

In  connection  with  these  brief,  practical,  week-day  ad¬ 
dresses  upon  this  most  eventful,  romantic,  chequered, 
and  helpful  human  life,  you  are  earnestly  exhorted  to 
hear  and  heed  the  sermons  preached  in  church  on  the 
Sundays  of  Lent.  In  the  time  allowed  for  a  sermon 
your  rector  will  have  opportunity  to  bring  before  you 
the  deeper  devotional  and  doctrinal  aspects  of  this  por¬ 
tion  of  the  Christian  year  in  a  style  and  method  more  be¬ 
coming  to  the  greater  solemnities  of  public  worship  on 
the  Lord’s  Day. 

(Should  these  printed  pages  be  read  by  any  parishioner 
whose  clergyman  uses  some  other  course  of  week-day 
readings,  that  parishioner  must  not  make  the  private 
reading  of  this  book  an  excuse  for  neglecting  the  week¬ 
day  services  of  the  parish  church.  Unless  these  pages 
are  an  inspiration  to  increased  faithfulness  in  Christian 
duty  they  will  be  written  and  read  in  vain.) 

We  have  said  that  Jacob’s  history  is  interesting. 
Every  life-story  has  its  fascination.  “Biography,”  said 
Carlyle,  “  is  the  most  universally  pleasant  and  profitable 
of  all  reading.”  The  biography  of  one  who  was  great 
and  good  is  a  help,  incentive,  and  guide  for  all  who 
would  be  true  to  God  and  to  the  highest  ideals  of  man¬ 
kind.  In  every  true  life,  if  we  get  at  the  secret  of  it,  we 
shall  find  that  strong  and  beautiful  character  is  wrought 
out  and  manifested 

“  In  the  struggle,  not  the  prize  ;  ” 


4 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


and  that  the  refinement  of  mind,  the  elevation  of  thought, 
the  tenacity  of  purpose,  the  tenderness  of  affection,  the 
strength  of  will,  which  result  from  a  life  of  energetic  and 
well-directed  effort  to  serve  God  and  man,  are  in  them¬ 
selves  the  best  and  most  satisfactory  rewards  of  that 
labor.  A  distinguished  Scotch  preacher  (Dr.  Candlish) 
said:  “  There  is  scarcely  a  mood  of  the  mind  into  which 
sin  or  sorrow  can  cast  a  believer  that  may  not  find  a  type, 
or  parallel,  or  example,  in  Jacob.”  His  words  are  true. 
The  narrative  is  of  perennial  interest.  It  is,  moreover, 
especially  suitable  for  Lenten  reading.  In  Lent  we  hope 
to  overcome  some  of  our  faults,  to  multiply  our  graces. 
Jacob  trod  that  upward  road  and  marked  the  way.  No 
man  in  the  Bible,  unless  it  be  St.  Peter,  started  lower  or 
climbed  higher.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  while  Jacob 
was  born  with  the  strongest  inclinations  towards  evil, 
while  he  often  yielded  to  those  inclinations,  he  was  never 
lured  into  the  grosser  forms  of  self-indulgence.  His  sins 
were  of  the  heart  and  of  the  mind.  Therefore,  if  Jacob 
speaks  to  believers  by  his  sorrows,  by  his  chastisements, 
by  his  aspirations,  he  speaks  especially  by  his  sins,  for 
few  of  us  are  in  danger  of  yielding  to  the  coarser  forms 
of  vice;  our  sins,  for  the  most  part,  are  the  sins  of  Jacob 
—  sins  of  worldliness,  of  self-will,  of  presuming  on  the 
mercies  of  God. 

The  series  of  addresses  which  we  have  outlined  will 
be  chiefly  expository.  Now  expositions  of  Holy  Scrip¬ 
ture  are  attractive  to  thoughtful  people  because  they 
necessarily  eliminate  many  of  the  undesirable  features 
of  modern  religious  discourse.  The  personality  of  the 
speaker,  local,  secular,  or  disputed  subjects  must  retire 
into  the  background  while  the  Holy  Spirit  Himself,  in 
the  words  which  He  has  inspired,  is  permitted  to  speak 


The  Beginning. 


5 


His  own  blessed  and  edifying  message.  It  is  generally 
agreed  that  our  lay-people  should  take  more  time  in 
Lent  for  an  intelligent  and  prayerful  study  of  some  por¬ 
tion  of  the  sacred  writings.  We  hear  much  of  the  dangers 
which  threaten  the  Church  from  the  researches  and 
conjectures  of  the  so-called  “  higher  critics.”  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  deadliest  foe  which  threatens  the  Word 
of  God  to-day  is  not  criticism,  but  neglect.  It  is  the  un¬ 
opened  Bible  in  Christian  homes,  not  criticism,  even  the 
most  radical  and  faithless  criticism,  which  should  awaken 
our  fears.  God  will  defend  and  keep  His  own.  But  its 
treasures  are  for  those  that  seek  them.  Expository 
preaching  is  a  reading  of  Scripture  in  the  ears  of  the 
people,  and  it  often  leads  them  to  open  their  Bibles  when 
they  reach  home.  It  is,  furthermore,  the  natural  method 
of  enforcing  Divine  truth.  The  chief  purpose  of  preach¬ 
ing  is  to  interpret  Holy  Scripture.  Our  Lord’s  first  ser¬ 
mon  was  an  exposition  of  a  chapter  from  Isaiah,  and  on 
the  day  of  His  Resurrection  “  He  expounded  unto  ”  the 
two  disciples,  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  “  in  all  the 
Scriptures  the  things  concerning  Himself.”  This  method 
was  used  in  the  synagogues  and  was  transferred  to  the 
early  Church.  Justin  Martyr  tells  us  that  in  the  second 
century  all  preaching  was  expository.  In  the  fourth  cen¬ 
tury  St.  Chrysostom  chided  the  people  because  they 
turned  their  eyes  to  a  man  who  lighted  lamps  in  the 
cathedral  while  he  was  expounding  the  Scriptures.  Ex¬ 
position  is  not  the  only  way,  nor  the  only  good  way 
of  preaching  the  Gospel,  but  surely  it  should  not  be 
neglected.  When  this  method  is  fairly  employed  the 
pews  usually  find  relief  in  one  particular,  for  it  is  with 
an  isolated  text  and  not  with  an  exposition  that  the 
preacher  finds  it  so  “  dangerously  easy  to  glide  into 


6 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


exhortation  when  he  should  be  rather  exercising  himself 
in  explanation.” 

On  this  day  of  good  resolutions  let  us  think  of  one 
great  fact  in  Jacob’s  history.  When  God  chose  Jacob  to 
found  a  nation  and  institute  a  religious  economy,  He 
did  not  “  find  out  a  man  with  a  ready-made  virtue,  and 
then  reward  him  for  it.”  On  the  contrary,  he  who 
deceived  his  father,  cheated  his  brother,  mastered  des¬ 
tiny  itself,  and  “  from  a  shelf  the  precious  diadem  stole 
and  put  it  in  his  pocket,”  who  vowed  “  the  Lord 
shall  be  my  God,”  and  yet  let  his  heart  linger  on  the 
earth — such  a  man  as  this  found  it  hard  to  learn  to  sub¬ 
mit  his  will  to  the  will  of  God.  That  was  the  secret 
of  all  Jacob’s  failures  and  sorrows.  Is  it  not  so  with  us  ? 
Said  St.  Augustine  :  “  The  carnal  man  rises  from  his 
worldliness  and  becomes  divine  when  in  all  things  he 
prefers  God’s  will  to  his  own.”  To-day  let  us  resolve  to 
make  a  complete  surrender  and  say  from  the  heart,  “  Thy 
will,  not  mine,  be  done.”  “  I  have  but  one  small 
thing — my  will,”  writes  a  holy  man.  “Is  it  a  great 
thing  to  surrender  to  Him  who  gives  such  great  bless¬ 
ings  to  me,  and  who  purchased  me  with  His  own  most 
precious  Blood  ?  ” 


THE  BROTHERS. 


FIRST  THURSDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  the  boys  grew:  and  Esau  was  a  cunning  hunter,  a  man  of  the 
field  ;  and  Jacob  was  a  plain  man,  dwelling  in  tents.  And  Isaac  loved 
Esau,  because  he  did  eat  of  his  venison  :  but  Rebekah  loved  Jacob.” — 
Gen.  xxv.  27,  28. 

IS  the  narrative  before  us  a  true  story  ?  Is  it  history  or 
is  it  merely  folk-lore  and  old-world  legend  ?  Of  many 
answers  take  one.  In  this  portion  of  the  Bible  we  read 
of  little  or  nothing  which  is  beyond  our  own  experience. 
Birth,  dreams,  thoughts  about  God,  marriage,  joy,  sor¬ 
row,  doubt,  death,  burial  are  among  the  facts,  and  not 
the  legends  of  the  race.  The  characters  in  the  story  are 
not  grotesque  nor  superhuman,  neither  entirely  good  nor 
utterly  bad;  and  the  scenes  and  incidents  brought  before 
us  are  in  keeping  with  the  civilization  of  the  period  desig¬ 
nated.  We  must  admit  that  these  chapters,  in  their 
record  of  the  feelings,  speech,  and  behavior  of  the  men 
and  women  whose  history  they  relate,  seem  to  give  us  a 
natural  and  credible  story ;  that  at  the  same  time  their 
representation  of  the  being  and  character  of  God  is  such 
that  neither  the  intellect  nor  the  moral  sense  is  repelled 
by  what  is  said  concerning  Him. 

That  portion  of  the  history  which  we  will  consider 
during  the  days  of  Lent  opens  with  the  birth  of  Esau  and 
Jacob.  Subsequently,  each  received  a  new  name  to 
which  a  moral  significance  was  attached,  but  when  they 
were  born  the  twins  were  given  names  suggested  by  the 


7 


8 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


act  of  one  and  the  appearance  of  the  other,  Esau  mean¬ 
ing  “  hairy  ”  and  Jacob  “  he  who  takes  by  the  heel.” 

As  a  rule  twins  cherish  a  deep  affection  for  each  other 
and  have  similar  tastes  and  dispositions,  but  the  sons  of 
Isaac  and  Rebekah  soon  exhibited  as  marked  a  contrast 
in  head  and  heart  as  in  outward  appearance.  From  dawn 
to  dusk  Esau  roamed  over  the  hills  and  valleys  in  pursuit 
of  the  wild  beasts  of  the  field.  He  was  the  heir  and 
thought  himself  entitled  to  a  youth  of  pleasure.  But 
Jacob,  accepting  the  position  of  a  younger  son,  gave  his 
attention  to  the  flocks  and  herds,  the  sowing  and  the 
reaping,  and  became  a  man  of  steady,  industrious  habits. 
Rebekah  loved  Jacob  and  knew  that  he  was  God’s  chosen, 
for  an  oracle  from  heaven  had  declared  unto  her,  “  The 
elder  shall  serve  the  younger.  ’  ’  But  J acob  was  by  nature 
crafty  and  ambitious,  and  unfortunately  his  mother,  in¬ 
stead  of  correcting  this  disposition,  stimulated  it  by  fre¬ 
quently  reminding  him  of  the  mysterious  message  from 
heaven.  And  so  he  grew  up  with  high  notions  of  the 
powers  and  privileges  of  the  birthright  of  the  family,  firm 
in  the  belief  that  somehow  he  would  be  the  future  lord 
of  the  tribe  and  the  inheritor  of  the  promises,  and  ready 
to  aid  himself  by  any  means  within  reach  in  the  work  of 
securing  his  rights  and  accomplishing  the  designs  of 
Providence. 

Jacob  differed  from  Esau  in  at  least  three  particulars. 
Jacob  is  the  first  man  mentioned  in  the  Bible  who  pos¬ 
sessed  marked  intellectual  strength ;  upon  whom  the  gift 
of  thought  and  expression  was  bestowed  with  a  generos¬ 
ity  which  would  have  made  him  a  distinguished  man  in 
any  calling,  in  any  age.  He  used  that  power  to  master 
men,  and  he  mastered  them.  For  many  years  he  matched 
his  keen  mind  against  the  mind  of  God  and  sought  to 


The  Brothers. 


9 


have  his  own  way  and  win  his  own  ends  by  outwitting 
his  Maker.  Now  a  strong  man,  a  man  who  stands  as  a 
mountain  peak  amid  surrounding  hills,  is  always  an  inter¬ 
esting  and  fascinating  study,  for  naturally  we  are  all  hero- 
worshippers.  Furthermore,  Heine’s  observation  that  the 
men  of  action  are  after  all  only  the  unconscious  instru¬ 
ments  of  the  men  of  thought  is  as  profound  as  it  is  true. 
Brains  rule  the  world.  But  the  spiritual  helpfulness  of 
the  story  of  Jacocv  mental  power  is  to  be  seen  in  the  fact 
that  while  he  was  constantly  tempted  to  use,  and  often 
did  use,  his  intellect  in  the  service  of  the  senses  —  not 
grossly,  for  he  was  quite  free  from  grossness  in  any  of  its 
forms  —  God  constantly  withstood  him  in  the  attempt. 
From  first  to  last  God  wrestled  with  Jacob,  for  having 
begun  a  good  work  in  the  soul  of  His  servant  He  would 
accomplish  it  unto  the  day  of  salvation. 

There  are  two  other  qualities  which  also  distinguished 
Jacob  from  his  brother. 

One  was  a  high  appreciation  of  the  spiritual  value  of  the 
birthright.  He  had  the  religious  temperament.  From 
earliest  childhood  he  thought  much  of  the  mysteries  of 
the  strange  world  about  him,  of  the  stranger  world  within 
him.  “  Has  the  world  an  owner?  ”  he  would  ask ;  “  does 
it  belong  to  my  father  Isaac?  What  makes  the  world  go 
on,  the  sun  rise  and  set,  the  seasons  come  and  go?  And 
the  people,  too,  are  they  governed  by  laws,  as  the  world 
seems  to  be?  What  of  myself ;  must  I  leave  this  world  ; 
when,  and  whither?”  And  so  as  the  sense  of  his  own 
personality  awakes  he  will  think  of  the  real  Owner,  Law¬ 
maker,  and  Governor  of  the  world  and  of  all  its  people. 
He  will  become  conscious  of  a  Presence  outside  himself, 
a  Personality  spoken  of  by  his  devout  parents  as  God. 
Thoughtful  youth  readily  attains  to  such  convictions.  It 


IO 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


sees  that  every  natural  longing  has  its  natural  satisfaction. 
If  the  body  thirsts  for  water,  its  demand  is  amply  provided 
for.  If  the  heart  craves  affection,  there  are  fellow-beings 
to  receive  and  to  return  its  devotion.  If  we  thirst  for 
life  eternal,  for  love  eternal,  it  is  therefore  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  eternal  life  and  eternal  love  will  be  given  in 
answer  to  the  cry  for  them.  Yes,  the  human  heart  is 
naturally  religious,  naturally  Christian.  It  is  not  satisfied 
with  the  earth.  You  give  a  bird  food  and  drink  and  a 
safe  and  comfortable  cage.  You  may  think  it  satisfied 
with  its  life  in  the  cage.  Open  the  door,  however,  and 
you  will  see  where  its  true  home  is  when  it  soars  forth 
into  its  native  air.  Unthoughtful  Esau  was  seemingly 
content  with  the  earth.  Jacob  longed  to  know  God. 

Again,  Jacob  was  distinguished  from  his  brother  by  his 
constancy,  his  persistent,  unwavering  constancy.  Esau 
is  “  to  one  thing  constant  never.”  He  acts  upon  im¬ 
pulse,  and  appetite  or  circumstances  change  his  pur¬ 
pose  from  day  to  day.  Inconstancy  is  “  that  one  error 
which  “  fills  him  with  faults;  makes  him  run  through 
all  the  sins.”  Notwithstanding  his  guile,  Jacob  was 
great  because  he  was  constant.  His  mind  was  set 
on  the  birthright  and  year  after  year  he  schemed  and 
watched,  and,  never  wavering,  won  the  prize.  Rachel 
was  the  darling  of  his  heart.  For  her  he  toiled  in  almost 
servile  labor  fourteen  years  and  because  of  his  great  love 
the  time  seemed  short.  The  constancy  of  Thackeray’s 
Major  Dobbin,  over  which  we  thrill  and  weep,  is  in  Jacob. 
Rachel  died  by  Jacob’s  side  in  her  youth,  but  her  image 
remained  undimmed  in  his  constant  heart,  and  after  what 
might  be  called  a  lifetime,  when  death  came  to  him  in 
the  mansion  of  the  great  king  of  Egypt,  his  thoughts  were 
of  Rachel  and  her  name  was  on  his  lips.  Addison’s 


The  Brothers. 


1 1 

strong  words  concerning  constancy  will  help  us  to  recog¬ 
nize  in  Jacob’s  remarkable  constancy  a  true  greatness. 
“  Without  constancy,  ”  says  the  essayist,  “  there  is  neither 
love,  friendship,  nor  virtue  in  the  world.” 

• 

In  the  Scripture  before  us  there  is  a  lesson  for  the 
young  and  for  those  who  love  them.  Whittier  has  voiced 
this  lesson, — 


“We  shape  ourselves  the  joy  or  fear 
Of  which  the  coming  life  is  made  ; 
And  fill  our  future’s  atmosphere 
With  sunshine  or  with  shade. 

The  tissue  of  the  life  to  be 

We  weave  with  colors  all  our  own  ; 
And  in  the  fields  of  destiny 
We  reap  as  we  have  sown.” 


Or,  more  briefly,  in  Wordsworth’s  familiar  line, 

“  The  child  is  father  of  the  man.” 


We  have  here  also  a  lesson  for  our  own  home  life. 
Isaac’s  home  was  undoubtedly  the  holiest  and  purest  on 
the  earth  at  that  time.  The  Marriage  Office  holds  it  up 
as  a  model  even  for  Christians,  reminding  us  that  Isaac 
and  Rebekah  lived  faithfully  together, —  and  yet  there 
was  discord  in  that  home.  There  was  in  that  home  both 
want  of  thought  and  want  of  heart.  In  that  home  Esau 
became  a  profane  man.  Are  we  doing  God  service  in  our 
homes  ?  If  we  desire  to  do  better  and  be  better,  here  is 
work  for  Lent.  We  read  that  on  the  night  of  the  Pass- 
over  in  Egypt  “  there  was  not  a  house  where  there  was  not 
one  dead.  ”  In  how  many  of  our  houses  is  there  one  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins  ?  Do  those  I  live  with  take  know¬ 
ledge  of  me  that  I  have  been  with  Jesus  ?  Do  they  see 


12 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


that  my  communions  are  making  me  more  gentle  and 
unselfish  in  act  and  speech  ?  “  Let  them  learn  first  to 

shew  piety  at  home  is  a  text  for  us  all  to  ponder  in  our 
hearts. 


THE  BARTER. 


FIRST  FRIDAY  IN  LENT 


“And  Esau  said  to  Jacob,  Feed  me,  I  pray  thee,  with  that  same  red 
pottage  ;  for  I  am  faint.” — Gen.  xxv.  30. 

HE  portion  of  Jacob’s  life-story  which  will  occupy 


1  our  thoughts  for  some  days  to  come  is,  in  one  of 
its  aspects,  a  study  in  temptation.  To  each  member  of 
this  household,  the  chosen  family  of  God,  the  tempter 
comes.  Next  Sunday  morning  the  Gospel  in  the  Com¬ 
munion  Office  relates  the  temptation  of  Christ.  That 
important  event  in  His  life  naturally  leads  us  to  think  of 
our  own  temptations  and  His  example  to  us  in  our  trials. 
His  succor  and  His  sympathy.  During  these  early  days 
in  Lent  we  are  therefore  following  the  mind  of  the  Church 
in  taking  up  the  subject  of  temptation. 

1.  Consider  first  the  peculiar  incident  of  the  text.  We 
read  that  “  Jacob  sod  pottage;  and  Esau  came  from 
the  field  and  he  was  faint.”  Jacob  was  preparing  his 
evening  meal,  a  dish  of  pottage  or  porridge,  composed  of 
red  lentils,  a  vegetable  still  in  common  use  in  the  East. 
The  savory  odor  of  the  pottage  cooking  on  the  fire  guided 
Esau  to  the  spot.  He  was  coming  home  wearied  from 
the  hunt.  We  know  not  what  unusual  fatigues  he  had 
endured  that  day,  or  what  daring  adventures  he  had  en¬ 
countered  with  the  wild  beasts  of  the  field,  but  when  he 
reached  his  brother’s  side  he  threw  himself  down  and  de¬ 
manded  the  instant  satisfaction  of  his  ravenous  appetite, 
crying  out,  “  Feed  me  with  that  red  —  that  red.” 


13 


14 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


Jacob  saw  the  hand  of  fate.  For  years  he  had  been 
plotting  and  planning  to  secure  his  brother’s  birthright, 
and  although  it  is  scarcely  possible  that  he  had  ever 
dreamed  of  such  a  chance  as  this,  his  keen  mind  at  once 
recognized  the  opportunity.  He  knew  his  brother;  he 
knew  how  slight  a  value  Esau  placed  upon  the  spiritual 
heritage,  and  he  knew  the  strength  of  Esau’s  appetites 
and  impulses;  and  so,  seizing  the  opportunity,  he  replied, 
“  ‘  Sell  me  this  day  thy  birthright.’  On  this  condition 
only  you  shall  have  the  pottage.’  “  Behold,”  said  the 
hungry  man,  “  I  am  at  the  point  to  die;  and  what  profit 
shall  this  birthright  do  to  me  ?  ”  Here  we  have  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  exaggeration  and  unbelief.  He  was  not  starving 
or  dying,  he  had  strength  to  walk  and  speak,  and  in  his 
father’s  house  near  by,  or  from  the  hand  of  any  servant, 
he  might  in  a  few  moments  have  had  enough  and  to  spare. 
And  when  he  declared  that  his  birthright  could  profit  him 
nothing  after  he  was  dead  he  revealed  his  own  want  of 
faith  in  what  was  really  the  very  heart  of  the  Abrahamic 
promise.  Esau  is  thus  an  idolater  of  the  immediate,  the 
real  founder  of  the  Epicurean  school — “  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.”  His  birthright  is  a  vague 
vision  of  the  future,  while  the  pottage  is  a  “  bird  in  hand 
worth  two  in  the  bush.” 

But  Jacob  will  not  trust  his  brother’s  word:  “  Swear  to 
me  this  day,”  he  says  ;  “  we  will  make  a  bargain  which 
cannot  be  broken.  ’  ’  Thereupon  the  agreement  was  sealed 
with  an  oath.  “  So  Esau  sold  his  birthright  unto  Jacob.” 

Then  Jacob  gave  Esau  bread  and  pottage  of  lentils. 
And  he  did  eat  and  drink,  and  rose  up,  and  went  his 
^way : -ijnns  Esau  despised  his  birthright.” 

2.  What,  then,  let  us  now  ask,  was  this  birthright,  and 
was  Jacob  justified  in  securing  it  as  he  did  ?  In  patri- 


The  Barter. 


i5 


archal  times  the  first-born  succeeded  his  father  as  head 
of  the  family,  inherited  a  double  portion  of  his  father’s 
goods,  and  had  the  right  to  act  as  priest  for  the  family 
and  tribe.  But  the  promise  to  Abraham  declared,  “  In 
thee,  and  in  thy  seed,  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth 
be  blessed,”  and  therefore  the  birthright  in  the  chosen 
family  constituted  its  possessor  the  father,  after  the  flesh, 
of  the  Messiah  who  was  to  come.  From  him  should  de¬ 
scend  “  the  chief  ruler,”  Christ,  who  should  be  “  the  first¬ 
born  among  many  brethren,”  and  “  the  first-begotten 
from  the  dead  ”  and  whose  Church  is  called  “  the  Church 
of  the  first-born.” 

Now  Jacob  believed  this,  believed,  too,  the  revelation 
made  to  his  mother,  “  the  elder  shall  serve  the  younger,” 
and  he  coveted  the  blessing.  The  narrative  nowhere 
represents  Jacob  as  a  perfect  man,  and  here  we  see  him 
committing  a  sin  which  led  him  into  other  sins  and  em¬ 
bittered  his  whole  life.  We  are,  of  course,  disposed  to 
view  his  conduct  in  the  most  favorable  light  possible. 
But  we  must  frankly  admit  that  he  treated  his  brother 
unfairly  and  took  advantage  of  his  weakness.  We  must 
remember,  however,  that  Jacob  had  neither  the  written 
Word,  the  Holy  Spirit,  nor  the  example  of  Christ,  as  we 
have ;  nevertheless  he  had  a  conscience  and  he  must  have 
known  that  this  barter  was  wrong  and  faithless. 

3.  Take  a  third  thought.  Let  us  consider  Esau’s  temp¬ 
tation  and  his  fall.  Esau  was  suddenly  tempted  to  pay 
too  dear  a  price  for  the  gratification  of  an  appetite  of  the 
body.  So  the  tempter  said  to  our  Lord,  “  If  thou  be 
the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made 
bread.”  Our  Saviour’s  real  temptation  in  the  suggestion 
here  offered  was  that  He  should  do  His  own  will  and 
make  Himself  independent  of  the  Father’s  providential 


1 6  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

support.  Yet  He  had  fasted  long  and  was  an  hungered, 
and  we  know  that  He  was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as 
we  are,  and  surely,  in  some  measure,  He  was  tempted  to 
pay  too  dear  for  bread  to  eat.  Are  we  not  all  familiar, 
sorrowfully  familiar,  with  this  form  of  temptation  ?  The 
natural  desires  of  the  body  are  sinless  in  themselves,  for 
they  were  implanted  by  God,  but  the  tempter  comes  and 
lures  us  to  gratify  these  desires  unlawfully,  prematurely, 
instantly,  and  the  price  he  asks  is  our  birthright. 

To-day  let  us  take  home  two  thoughts  which  grow  out 
of  what  has  been  said  upon  the  subject  of  temptation. 

Those  who  are  endeavoring  to  be  consistent  communi¬ 
cants  of  the  Church  and  to  grow  in  grace  soon  discover 
the  two  chief  forms  of  temptation  which  beset  them  and 
the  Christian  method  of  dealing  with  such  temptations. 
The  first  general  form  of  temptation  may  be  called  a  trial 
of  faith.  St.  Peter  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  first  Epistle 
teaches  us  that  we  should  “  rejoice  ”  under  such  “  mani¬ 
fold  temptations,  that  the  trial  of  ”  our  “  faith,  being 
much  more  precious  than  of  gold  that  perisheth,  though 
it  be  tried  with  fire,  might  be  found  unto  praise  and 
honor  and  glory  at  the  appearing  of  Jesus  Christ.” 
The  manifold  temptations  which  are  a  trial  of  faith,  the 
Apostle  seems  to  say,  must  boldly  be  met  and  conquered 
by  the  help  of  God.  He  also  tells  us  for  our  encourage¬ 
ment,  that  they  are  only  “  for  a  season,”  you  will  soon 
find  relief;  nor  do  they  come  to  you  without  purpose, 
needlessly,  for  you  are  assaulted  by  them  only  “  if  need 
be.”  The  storm  of  wind  is  good  for  the  oak  because  it 
lengthens  and  strengthens  the  roots  of  the  oak,  making  it 
more  vigorous  and  able  to  withstand  yet  fiercer  gales. 
So  temptation  met  and  overcome  by  the  Christian  in¬ 
creases  his  strength.  The  strength  of  the  temptation,  in 


The  Barter. 


17 


a  real  and  true  sense,  has  been  added  to  the  strength  of 
the  conqueror,  has  passed  over  into  the  soul  of  the  victor. 
In  fighting  manfully  to  maintain  our  Christian  name  and 
calling  it  is  our  comfort  to  know  that  our  Divine  Helper 
is  ever  with  us,  offering  us  grace  to  continue  the  conflict. 
“  Where  wert  Thou,  Lord,  while  I  was  being  tempted,” 
exclaimed  a  saint  of  old.  “  Close  by  you,  my  son,  all 
the  while,”  was  the  tender  reply.  With  all  his  mistakes, 
Mohammed  was  strong  because  of  his  unwavering  faith 
in  God  as  an  ever-present  help.  When  his  trembling 
comrade  cried  in  despair,  “  We  are  only  two,”  he  could 
confidently  reply,  “  There  is  one  other,  there  is  God.” 
Fenelon,  the  devout  Christian  believer,  said,  “  The  reali¬ 
zation  of  God’s  presence  is  the  one  sovereign  remedy 
against  temptation.” 

Again,  while  some  temptations  must  be  faced  and 
beaten  down,  there  are  temptations  of  another  sort, 
temptations  such  as  Esau’s,  temptations  which  must  be 
fled  from.  Joseph  fled  and  was  saved.  ”  Watch  and 
pray,  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation.”  Our  Lord 
would  have  us  turn  away  from  the  entrance  of  the 
tempter’s  palace  of  false  delight.  Especially  should  we 
flee  from  a  temptation  which  lures  us  to  yield  to  our 
besetting  sin.  As  has  been  said,  If  a  man  wears  gar¬ 
ments  in  which  powder  is  wrought  into  the  texture,  he 
cannot  safely  go  and  hire  out  in  a  blacksmith’s  shop.” 

In  Holy  Scripture  we  are  taught  that  Christians  are 
not  ignorant  of  the  devices  of  the  adversary  of  souls. 
Usually  we  do  know  whether  a  temptation  is  one  which 
should  be  fought  or  fled  from.  If  it  is  one  we  should  flee 
from,  we  are  lost  if  we  dally  with  it.  A  prompt,  resolute, 
courageous  turning  away  is  wisdom  and  safety.  But  how 
shall  we  have  strength  to  act  thus  decisively  and  on  the 


i8 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


instant  ?  Take  one  answer.  Close  your  eyes  and  think 
of  Christ  upon  the  Cross.  Then  shall  you  have  strength 
to  turn  away.  For  “  God  is  faithful.”  He  “will  not 
suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that  ye  are  able;  but  will 
with  the  temptation  also  make  a  way  to  escape.” 


THE  BIRTHRIGHT. 


FIRST  SATURDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  Thus  Esau  despised  his  birthright.” — Gen.  xxv.,  34. 

ESAU  sold  his  birthright  because  he  despised  it.  His 
appetite  was  stronger  than  his  faith.  For  this  rea¬ 
son  he  is  called  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  a  “  profane 
person.”  Self-indulgence  and  unbelief  go  together,  and 
one  leads  to  the  other;  and  the  motives  which  prompted 
Esau  to  make  this  senseless,  wicked  bargain  are  still  do¬ 
ing  their  evil  work  in  the  world. 

1.  Birthrights  are  sold  every  day  “  for  one  morsel  of 
meat.”  Esau  is  the  type  of  thousands  who  barter  away 
baptismal  grace  for  some  desire  of  the  flesh.  To  make 
this  foolish  exchange  is  a  temptation  which  beguiles  the 
young  especially.  Youth  should  be  guarded  with  all 
diligence  because  the  penalty  visited  upon  such  barter  is 
always  severe,  sometimes  it  seems  terribly,  even  unjustly 
severe.  On  every  hand  may  be  found  those  who  suffer 
through  the  years  on  account  of  one  moment  of  lack  of 
self-control  in  the  days  of  youth.  Yet  when  we  consider, 
we  are  forced  to  admit  that  in  the  nature  of  things  such 
consequences  are  inevitable.  The  first  bloom  of  purity 
and  innocence,  for  instance,  is  a  birthright  which  once 
lost  is  lost  forever.  Brush  the  bloom  from  the  peach  or 
the  plum,  and  the  peach  remains  and  the  plum  remains, 
but  the  bloom  is  gone  forever.  It  never  comes  a  second 
time.  It  is  so  with  the  soul.  The  consequences  of  some 
sins  remain.  Some  things  once  lost  are  lost  forever. 


20 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


And  so  the  wise  man’s  exhortation,  “  Keep  thy  heart  with 
all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life,”  should  be 
impressed  upon  the  young.  The  heart  is  the  source  and 
centre  of  the  life  of  the  body.  When  it  is  diseased,  the 
life  falters;  when  it  ceases,  death  ensues.  In  the  spiritual 
use  of  the  word  the  heart  signifies  that  which  is  precious 
and  necessary  to  the  on-flowing  of  life.  Therefore  the 
heart  must  be  kept  with  all  diligence.  The  birthright  of 
a  pure,  clean  heart,  a  heart  open  to  the  influences  of 
Divine  grace,  Satan  covets  and  offers  for  it  “  one  morsel 
of  meat.”  And  still  the  foolish  bargain  allures,  seems  a 
good  bargain  to  the  eager  appetite.  To  all,  some  time, 
in  some  way,  the  adversary  draws  nigh,  as  he  came  to 
hungry  Esau,  as  he  came  to  the  fasting  Christ,  saying, 
“All  this  indulgence,  all  this  earthly  pleasure  or  treasure 
will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  but  for  a  moment 
and  worship  me.” 

2.  Notice,  too,  that  Esau’s  sin,  like  most  acts  of  a 
similar  character,  was  at  once  the  impulse  of  the  moment 
and  the  result  of  tendencies  which  had  long  been  growing 
in  him.  A  flash  of  lightning  seems  a  sudden  thing.  In 
reality  the  lightning  flash  is  only  made  possible  by  atmo¬ 
spheric  conditions  and  stores  of  electricity  which  have 
been  gathering  for  some  time.  This  helps  to  explain 
why  an  entire  earthly  career,  possibly  an  eternal  future, 
may  turn  upon  the  act  of  a  moment.  Criminals  in  our 
State  prisons  often  tell  those  to  whom  they  open  their 
hearts  that  they  were  surprised  into  crime ;  almost  before 
they  knew  it  the  guilty  deed  was  done.  If  they  had  been 
given  time  for  reflection,  they  say,  they  would  have  over¬ 
come  the  impulse  which  ruined  them.  But  in  all  such 
cases  evil  desires  and  tempers  must  have  been  nourished 
in  the  heart  for  months  and  years;  when  they  were  full 


The  Birthright. 


2 1 

grown  some  unexpected  chance  slipped  the  leash  on  them 
and  they  passed  beyond  control.  When  we  yield  to  a 
sinful  impulse,  behind  that  act  of  the  moment,  there  is, 
we  may  be  sure,  a  history.  Character  has  been  defined 
as  the  sum  of  all  our  acts;  and  what  any  one  of  us  would 
do  in  any  sudden  storm  of  passion,  in  any  instantaneous 
and  deadly  peril,  would  probably  depend  upon  our  char¬ 
acter — upon  what  we  already  are.  Esau’s  past  thoughts 
and  acts  had  made  him  the  man  he  was.  His  present 
behavior  was  only  the  harvest  of  what  he  had  sown  in 
the  waiting  furrows  of  the  past. 

3.  Again,  Esau  was  not  a  profane  man  because  he  sold 
his  birthright,  but  he  sold  his  birthright  because  he  was 
a  profane  man.  He  is  here  the  representative  of  many  a 
man  who  was  baptized  in  infancy,  grew  up  in  a  Christian 
home,  and  from  early  childhood  was  made  familiar  with 
churchly  teaching,  who  notwithstanding  this  precious 
birthright  has  become  a  man  of  the  world  ;  a  frank,  strong, 
generous,  attractive  man,  it  may  be,  but  yet  a  man  of  the 
world;  a  man  who  receives  and  accepts  God’s  most 
coveted  gifts  while  he  neglects  and  forgets  the  Giver. 
We  hesitate  to  call  such  cultivated,  successful,  and  pleas¬ 
ant  men  profane.  If  they  seem  to  lead  moral  lives  and 
speak  respectfully  of  religion,  we  hope  for  the  best.  But 
if  we  look  closely  into  such  lives  we  shall  see  that  both 
towards  God  and  men  they  are  selfish.  A  man  of  this 
kind  often  smilingly  requires  his  family  and  his  friends 
to  bend  to  his  will  and  minister  to  his  comfort,  his 
pleasure,  or  his  pride.  To  do  his  will  is  the  price  of  his 
esteem.  Even  his  unselfish  deeds  are  acts  of  expiation 
into  which  he  is  shamed  by  the  love  of  others,  or  his  self- 
love  is  gratified  by  placing  others  in  his  debt.  To  real 
self-denial  he  is  a  stranger.  The  very  first  lesson  in 


22 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


Christianity  he  knows  not ;  and  he  has  it  not  in  him  to 
desire  to  be  like  Christ, — who  did  not  His  own  will,  but 
gave  Himself  for  others.  It  is  a  pitiful  thing  to  see  these 
strong,  generous,  attractive,  prosperous  men  who  are 
without  God  in  the  world.  How  we  shrink  from  warn¬ 
ing  such  men!  Is  it  never  a  duty,  your  duty  and  mine, 
at  some  God-given  opportunity,  to  tell  such  men,  face  to 
face,  honestly  and  frankly,  of  their  awful  danger  ? 

4.  Again,  Esau  was  profane  because  he  did  not  believe 
in  his  birthright.  He  thought  it  would  not  profit  him 
then  or  after  he  died.  There  are  many  to-day  in  the 
same  unbelief.  They  do  not  see  the  value  or  necessity  of 
religion  either  for  this  life  or  for  that  which  possibly  may 
follow.  Such  unbelief  is  a  great  sin  because  it  shows  that 
the  man  has  no  inward  sense  of  a  guilt  which  needs  par¬ 
don,  no  ideals  which  can  uplift.  Surely,  too,  neglect  of 
God,  neglect  of  His  choicest  gifts,  must  wound  the  heart 
of  a  loving  Father.  Such  sin  is  a  grieving  of  the  Spirit 
of  God.  From  those  who  so  sin  we  may  ask  a  hearing, 
if  not  for  ourselves,  yet  for  one  who  was  great  and  wise 
and  not  disposed  to  be  credulous.  James  Russell  Howell, 
in  an  after-dinner  speech  before  a  company  of  educated 
and  prosperous  men,  many  of  whom  were  faithless,  said : 

I  fear  that  when  we  indulge  ourselves  in  the  amusement 
of  going  without  a  religion,  we  are  not,  perhaps,  aware 
how  much  we  are  sustained  at  present  by  an  enormous 
mass,  all  about  us,  of  religious  feeling  and  religious  con¬ 
viction  ;  so  that,  whatever  it  may  be  safe  for  us  to  think, 
for  us  who  have  had  great  advantages,  and  have  been 
brought  up  in  such  a  way  that  a  certain  moral  direction 
has  been  given  to  our  character,  I  do  not  know  what 
would  become  of  the  less  favored  classes  of  mankind  if 
they  undertook  to  play  the  same  game.  Whatever 


The  Birthright. 


23 


defects  and  imperfections  may  attach  to  a  few  points  of  a 
doctrinal  system  which  proclaims  a  crucified  and  risen 
Christ,  it  is  infinitely  preferable  to  any  form  of  polite  and 
polished  skepticism  which  gathers  as  its  votaries  the  de¬ 
generate  sons  of  heroic  ancestors,  who  having  been  trained 
in  a  society  and  educated  in  schools,  the  foundations  of 
which  were  laid  by  men  of  faith  and  piety,  now  turn  and 
kick  down  the  ladder  by  which  they  have  climbed  up, 
and  persuade  men  to  live  without  God,  and  leave  them 
to  die  without  hope.  The  worst  kind  of  religion  is  no 
religion  at  all,  but  these  men  living  in  ease  and  luxury, 
indulging  themselves  in  the  amusement  of  going  without 
a  religion,  may  be  thankful  that  they  live  in  lands  where 
the  Gospel  which  they  neglect  has  tamed  the  beastliness 
and  ferocity  of  the  men  who,  but  for  Christianity,  might 
long  ago  have  eaten  their  carcasses  like  the  South  Sea 
Islanders,  or  cut  off  their  heads  and  tanned  their  hides 
like  the  monsters  of  the  French  Revolution.  When  the 
microscopic  search  of  skepticism  which  has  hunted  the 
heavens  and  sounded  the  seas  to  disprove  the  existence 
of  a  Creator,  has  turned  its  attention  to  human  society, 
and  has  found  a  place  on  this  planet  ten  miles  square, 
where  a  decent  man  can  live  in  decency,  comfort,  and 
security,  supporting  and  educating  his  children  unspoiled 
and  unpolluted,  a  place  where  age  is  reverenced,  infancy 
respected,  manhood  respected,  and  womanhood  honored, 
and  human  life  held  in  due  regard ;  when  skeptics  can 
find  such  a  place  ten  miles  square  on  this  globe  where  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  has  not  gone  and  cleared  the  way  and 
laid  the  foundations  and  made  decency  and  security  pos¬ 
sible,  it  will  then  be  in  order  for  skeptical  literati  to  re¬ 
move  thither  and  there  ventilate  their  views.  But  so 
long  as  these  very  men  are  dependent  upon  the  religion 


24 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


which  they  discard  for  every  privilege  they  enjoy,  they 
may  well  hesitate  a  little  before  they  seek  to  rob  the 
Christian  of  his  hope  and  humanity  of  its  faith  in  that 
Saviour  who  alone  has  given  to  man  that  hope  of  life 
eternal  which  makes  life  tolerable  and  society  possible, 
and  robs  death  of  its  terrors  and  the  grave  of  its  gloom/’ 


THE  PLOT. 


MONDAY  AFTER  THE  FIRST  SUNDAY  IN  LENT 


“And  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  Isaac  was  old,  and  his  eyes  were  dim, 
so  that  he  could  not  see,  he  called  Esau  his  eldest  son.” — Gen.  xxvii.  i. 


O-DAY  we  reach  the  story  of  Isaac’s  temptation  and 


his  fall 


Is  it  a  sin  to  be  tempted  ?  No,  for  yesterday’s  Gospel 
told  us  that  our  Lord  Himself  was  tempted — tempted  in 
all  points  like  as  we  are  and  yet  without  sin.  He  was 
without  sin  in  being  tempted  and  He  was  without  sin 
under  temptation;  for  He  yielded  not  to  the  enticement. 
We  also  know  from  our  own  experience  that  temptation 
rejected  is  often  turned  into  a  blessing.  A  rejected 
temptation  becomes  a  blessing  when  it  reveals  to  us  our 
own  weakness  and  at  the  same  time  turns  weakness  into 
strength,  as  it  is  written,  “  Blessed  is  the  man  that  en- 
dureth  temptation.”  In  the  present  instance,  however, 
Isaac  failed  to  win  such  blessedness.  He  yielded  to  the 
evil  suggestion  without  the  slightest  resistance.  He  even 
tempted  himself.  He  was  a  holy  man,  given  to  medita¬ 
tion  and  prayer,  a  beautiful  example  of  the  contemplative 
life,  one  whose  days  were  knit  each  to  each  by  natural 
piety,  with  scarce  a  trace  of  worldliness  or  self-will,  and 
yet  he  sinned  the  one  great  sin  of  his  life  because  he  de¬ 
termined  to  have  his  own  way,  disregarding  the  known 
will  of  God.  That  so  good  a  man  fell  so  grievously  and 
inexcusably  seems  strange  at  first  reading  and  is  a  strik¬ 
ing  illustration  of  the  power  of  sin  and  of  the  danger 


25 


26 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


which  ever  shadows  the  believer,  shadows  even  the  oldest 
and  most  loyal  believer.  And  now  let  us  take  up  the 
interesting  narrative. 

i.  One  day  Isaac  decided  to  make  his  will;  his  failing 
sight  and  bodily  weakness  forcing  upon  him  the  conclu¬ 
sion  that  death  was  near.  “  Behold,  now,”  he  said,  “  I 
am  old;  I  know  not  the  day  of  my  death.”  Notice  that 
Isaac  manifests  no  fear  of  death.  There  are  many  such 
men.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  who  cannot 
think  of  their  last  earthly  moments  without  singular  fore¬ 
bodings.  Charles  Lamb  was  a  good  man,  and  yet  he 
said,  “  I  would  rather  set  up  my  tabernacle  here;  a  new 
state  of  being  staggers  me.”  Another  good  man,  a  good 
Churchman  too,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  said,  “  Death  is  a 
terrible  thing  to  face.  I  am  horribly  afraid.”  Un¬ 
doubtedly  men  of  a  certain  temperament  are  naturally 
open  to  the  attacks  of  this  fear;  it  is  constitutional. 
More  than  one  of  us  can  say,  “  This  terror  have  I  suffered 
from  my  youth  with  a  troubled  mind ;  every  day  of  my 
life  has  this  dark  shadow  flitted  across  my  soul.”  Those 
of  us  who  are  greatly  disquieted  by  this  dread  must  have 
faith  that  God  will  help  us  to  meet  death,  must  never 
permit  ourselves  to  believe  that  these  feelings  are  signs 
that  we  are  not  living  in  a  state  of  grace  or  that  God  has 
not  accepted  and  forgiven  us.  Our  blessed  Lord  experi¬ 
enced  the  same  fear  and  the  biographies  of  the  saints 
tell  us  that  the  best  of  Christians  have  trembled  when 
entering  the  valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death.  With  en¬ 
tire  fearlessness  Isaac  proceeds  to  set  his  house  in  order. 
He  will  formally  recognize  the  heir  of  the  birthright  and 
dispose  of  his  earthly  goods.  In  the  Office  for  the  Visi¬ 
tation  of  the  Sick  there  is  a  rubric  which  declares  that  if 
the  sick  man  “  hath  not  already  disposed  of  his  goods. 


The  Plot. 


2  7 


let  him  then  be  admonished  to  make  his  will. 

But  men  should  often  be  put  in  remembrance  to  take 
order  for  the  settling  of  their  temporal  estates  whilst  they 
are  in  health.”  It  is  not  said,  you  will  observe,  that  only 
those  who  have  large  fortunes  are  to  be  thus  exhorted ; 
no,  the  duty  rests  upon  all  who  have  anything  to  leave 
behind.  Make  your  will,  then,  if  you  have  not  made 
one,  and  do  so  at  once.  If  your  lawyer  tells  you  you  are 
set  upon  making  a  foolish  or  a  wicked  will  he  probably 
speaks  the  truth ;  for  lawyers,  after  all,  are  usually  truth¬ 
ful  and  conscientious  men.  And  be  sure  to  leave  some¬ 
thing  to  the  Church.  Even  one  hundred  dollars  would 
yield  for  all  time  a  useful  income  to  your  parish  or  to  the 
blessed  work  of  missions. 

2.  Now,  what  were  the  terms  of  Isaac’s  will  ?  “  And 

it  came  to  pass  that  when  Isaac  was  old,  and  his  eyes 
were  dim,  so  that  he  could  not  see,  he  called  Esau  his 
eldest  son,  and  said  unto  him,  My  son:  and  he  said 
unto  him,  Behold,  here  am  I.  And  he  said,  Behold 
now,  I  am  old,  I  know  not  the  day  of  my  death:  Now 
therefore  take,  I  pray  thee,  thy  weapons,  thy  quiver  and 
thy  bow,  and  go  out  into  the  field,  and  take  me  some 
venison ;  And  make  me  savory  meat,  such  as  I  love, 
and  bring  it  to  me,  that  I  may  eat;  that  my  soul  may 
bless  thee  before  I  die.” 

Isaac  has  determined  to  hand  over  to  profane  Esau  the 
great  promise  of  the  Covenant.  He  could  have  enter¬ 
tained  no  doubt  that  Jacob  was  the  Divinely  chosen  heir 
of  the  blessing.  Esau  had  sold  his  birthright  for  a  mess 
of  pottage.  In  many  other  ways  he  had  shown  that  he 
placed  no  value  upon  a  spiritual  inheritance.  He  had 
married  two  heathen  women  of  the  Hittites;  and  Isaac 
knew  that  the  Covenant  promise  could  not  descend 


28 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


upon  the  sons  of  these  aliens.  By  his  marriage  alone 
Esau  had  forfeited  the  primogeniture.  Furthermore,  the 
revelation  from  heaven  was  couched  in  unmistakable 
terms:  “  The  elder  shall  serve  the  younger.”  Isaac 
knew  that  his  purpose  was  wrong;  we  can  read  his  guilt 
in  his  conduct.  In  the  first  place  he  acts  with  unseemly 
haste — “  he  is  seized  with  a  panic  lest  his  favorite  should 
somehow  be  left  unblest.”  In  the  second  place  he  pro¬ 
poses  to  bless  Esau  secretly.  He  knows  that  his  family 
and  dependants  would  expect  such  a  ceremony  to  be  per¬ 
formed  at  a  public  feast,  the  heir  arrayed  in  the  “  goodly 
raiment  ”  of  the  priestly  office,  his  chieftainship  officially 
recognized,  and  the  whole  proceeding  hallowed  by  solemn 
religious  rites.  Instead  of  these  open  and  becoming  for¬ 
malities  it  is  now  arranged  between  father  and  son  that 
Esau  shall  assume  his  heirship  by  stealth.  In  the  third 
place  we  notice  that  the  old  man  does  not,  after  all,  im¬ 
part  the  blessing  on  the  instant ;  he  cannot  screw  his 
courage  to  the  sticking  point;  he  feels  that  he  must 

stimulate  his  spirit  by  artificial  means;  the  prophetic 
ecstasy  is  not  upon  him.”  The  narrative  also  implies 
that  Isaac  was  accustomed  to  indulge  himself  in  the 
pleasures  of  the  table,  and  knowing  from  past  experience 
that  the  exhilaration  which  comes  from  the  free  use  of 
meat  and  wine  would  give  him  strength  to  carry  out  a 
wilful  purpose,  he  tells  Esau  what  he  means  to  do  and 
sends  him  out  to  hunt  and  cook  the  savory  venison  which 
he  loves. 

3.  The  consequences  of  Isaac’s  sin  were  immediate  and 
disastrous.  He  brought  rebuke  and  defeat  and  humilia¬ 
tion  upon  himself;  and  he  led  each  one  of  the  members 
of  his  family  into  sin. 

It  must  be  so.  When  a  believing  soul  deliberately 


The  Plot. 


29 


goes  against  the  known  will  of  God  retribution  must 
come  and  must  be  heavy.  Are  none  of  us  praying, 

Thy  will  be  done,”  and  at  the  same  time  copying 
Isaac’s  conduct  ?  You  remember  how  God  taught  St. 
Peter  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  was  open  to  all  be¬ 
lievers  and  not  to  the  Jews  only.  The  Apostle  saw  in  a 
vision  a  great  sheet  let  down  before  him  full  of  all  sorts 
of  animals,  clean  and  unclean,  and  heard  a  heavenly  voice 
commanding  him  to  arise  and  slay  and  eat.  But  the  im¬ 
pulsive  Peter  refused  to  break  the  letter  of  the  Jewish 
Law  and  instantly  replied,  “  Not  so,  Lord!  ”  So  Isaac 
said,  “Not  so,  Lord!  I  will  not  bless  Jacob!  ’’  So  we 
often  say,  “  Not  so,  Lord!  ”  And  to  this  disobedience 
all  the  forlorn  experiences  of  Christians  can  be  traced. 
Every  departure  from  God’s  way  has  in  it  a  sting  that 
we  may  be  turned  back  into  the  right  road.  No  doubt 
Shakespeare  recalls  boyish  memories  and  experiences 
when  he  makes  Petruchio  ask: 

“  Who  does  not  know 
Where  a  wasp  doth  wear  his  sting  ?  ” 

By  bitter  experience  we  too  have  learned  where  the 
wasps  of  sin  do  wear  their  sting.  We  have  been  chas¬ 
tened  for  our  disobedience.  Our  Heavenly  Father  has 
often  used  His  rod  in  order  to  teach  us  the  lesson  of  trust 
in  His  goodness  and  wisdom.  Thus  our  only  safe  course 
is  to  go  to  God  constantly,  to  seek  the  Divine  guidance  in 
all  things,  both  great  and  small,  yielding  ourselves  heart¬ 
ily  to  His  will,  and  never  saying,  ‘  *  Not  so,  Lord.  ”  Such 
trustful  obedience  is  the  secret  of  a  happy  and  useful 
Christian  life.  Fenelon  has  wisely  said:  “  We  sleep  in 
peace  in  the  arms  of  God  when  we  yield  ourselves  up  to 
His  providence  in  a  delightful  consciousness  of  His  tender 


30 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


mercies;  no  more  restless  uncertainties,  no  more  anxious 
desires,  no  more  impatience  at  the  place  we  are  in,  for  it 
is  God  who  has  put  us  there,  and  who  holds  us  in  His 
arms.  Can  we  be  unsafe  where  He  has  placed  us,  and 
where  He  watches  over  us  as  a  parent  watches  a  child  ? 
This  confiding  repose,  in  which  earthly  care  sleeps,  is  the 
true  vigilance  of  the  heart;  yielding  itself  up  to  God, 
with  no  other  support  than  Him,  it  thus  watches  while 
we  sleep.” 


THE  COUNTER-PLOT. 


TUESDAY  AFTER  THE  FIRST  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  And  Rebekah  heard  when  Isaac  spake  to  Esau  his  son.” — Gen.  xxvii.  5. 

“  T  71  70MEN  will  be  listening,”  says  an  old  commen- 
V  V  tator  who  excuses  Isaac  and  blames  Rebekah. 
In  fact  she  is  usually  charged  with  being  at  the  bottom 
of  all  the  mischief  recorded  in  this  chapter;  whereas  the 
narrative  itself  points  to  Isaac  as  the  prime  mover  in 
the  sin.  He  it  was  who  led  his  wife  and  children  into 
the  paths  of  evil.  This  does  not  excuse  them,  although 
it  explains  and  accounts  for  their  conduct. 

The  wilful  old  man  set  his  own  will  against  the  will  of 
God  and  determined  to  give  to  Esau  the  blessing  of  the 
Covenant.  We  read,  “  Now  Rebekah  heard  when  Isaac 
spake  to  Esau.”  Probably  she  was  listening  behind  the 
door,  although  it  is  not  expressly  so  stated ;  and  when 
Esau  hastened  out  for  the  hunt  she  suddenly  realized 
that  the  knowledge  of  this  guilty  secret  placed  her  in  a 
most  trying  and  desperate  situation.  Now  we  can  hardly 
imagine,  for  any  woman,  a  more  pathetic  and  tragic  diffi¬ 
culty.  Her  husband  is  on  the  point  of  committing  a  ter¬ 
rible  sin  —  a  sin  which  will  destroy  the  chief  hope  and 
ambition  of  her  own  life  and  defeat  the  purpose  of 
Almighty  God.  Before  sunset  the  promise  of  the  Cove¬ 
nant  will  be  bestowed  upon  profane  Esau  and  the  sons  of 
his  heathen  wives.  What  shall  she  do  ?  Shall  she  go  in 
and  plead  with  the  obstinate  old  man;  or  run  after  the 
selfish  young  man  with  warnings  and  supplications?  No ; 


31 


32 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


for  they  would  reply  that  she  sought  only  her  own  way 
and  the  welfare  of  her  beloved  Jacob. 

Then  the  tempter  came,  saying  to  her,  “Are  not  your 
own  well-known  ingenuity  and  finesse  equal  to  this  emer¬ 
gency?  Can  you  not  devise  some  innocent  and  justifiable 
artifice  in  order  to  check  this  iniquity  ?  ”  And  so  the  out¬ 
lines  of  the  plot  flashed  upon  her  —  the  counter-plot  to 
the  plot  of  Isaac  and  Esau.  She  saw  her  way  clear  to 
beat  them  at  their  own  game.  Had  she  no  thought  of 
the  consequences;  no  prudent  recollection  of  the  truth — 

“  O  what  a  tangled  web  we  weave, 

When  first  we  practice  to  deceive  !  ” 

Did  no  good  angel  whisper,  “  Stand  still  and  see  the  sal¬ 
vation  of  God.  Leave  the  issue  with  God;  He  will  bring 
it  to  pass  and  accomplish  His  own  purpose  in  His  own 
way  ?  ”  Closing  her  ears  to  such  holy  suggestions  Rebekah 
persuaded  herself  that  the  end  justified  the  means.  And 
so  the  pious  fraud  began.  At  once  she  seeks  Jacob,  dis¬ 
closes  her  plan  and  asks  his  help:  “  Behold,  I  heard  thy 
father  speak  unto  Esau  thy  brother,  saying,  Bring  me 
venison,  and  make  me  savory  meat,  that  I  may  eat,  and 
bless  thee  before  the  Lord,  before  my  death.  Now, 
therefore,  my  son,  obey  my  voice  according  to  that 
which  I  command  thee.”  Although  Jacob  was  no  longer 
a  child  but  a  man  of  middle  age,  at  least  fifty-seven — ac¬ 
cording  to  some  authorities,  seventy-seven  • —  Rebekah 
lays  upon  him  a  mother’s  commands.  The  wily  woman 
knows  her  influence  over  him  and  his  deep  love  for  her; 
and  while  she  trusts  to  his  own  self-interest  to  help  win 
him  over  to  her  stratagem,  she  appeals  only  to  his  filial 
feelings.  “  Go  now  to  the  flock  and  fetch  me  from 
thence  two  kids  of  the  goats;  and  I  will  make  them 


The  Counter-Plot. 


33 


savory  meat  for  thy  father,  such  as  he  loveth;  and  thou 
shalt  bring  it  to  thy  father,  that  he  may  eat,  and  that  he 
may  bless  thee  before  his  death.” 

But  Jacob  has  a  scruple  of  conscience  at  this  trickery. 
He  already  knows  the  meaning  of  remorse  for  sin;  and 
if  he  has  not  defined  it  as  “  the  echo  of  a  lost  virtue,”  he 
at  least  anticipates  the  feelings  which  the  great  poet  has 
described  in  simple  and  deep  words: 

“  I  am  afraid  to  think  what  I  have  done.” 

”  I  fear,”  said  Jacob,  “  that  I  shall  bring  a  curse  upon 
me  and  not  a  blessing.”  Rebekah,  however,  assured  that 
she  is  about  to  win  a  benediction  and  not  a  malediction 
— in  her  impulsive  and  unselfish  affection  for  the  darling 
of  her  heart — and  impatient  with  his  hesitancy,  boldly 
takes  upon  herself  the  moral  responsibility,  crying  out, 

Upon  me  be  thy  curse,  my  son;  only  obey  my  voice. ” 
And  Jacob  obeyed.  Then  Rebekah  “  put  the  skins  of 
the  goats  upon  his  hands,  and  upon  the  smooth  of  his 
neck.  And  she  gave  the  savory  meat  and  the  bread, 
which  she  had  prepared,  into  the  hand  of  her  son  Jacob.” 

Look  for  a  moment  at  the  first  of  the  two  motives 
which  led  Rebekah  into  this  wickedness.  It  was  her 
love  for  Jacob.  As  Robertson  of  Brighton  truly  says, 
“  Rebekah  desired  nothing  for  herself,  but  for  Jacob; 
for  him  spiritual  blessing,  at  all  events  temporal  distinc¬ 
tion;  doing  wrong  not  for  her  own  advantage  but  for  the 
sake  of  one  she  loved.  It  is  a  touch  of  womanhood. 
There  are  persons  who  would  romantically  admire  this 
devotion  of  Rebekah  and  call  it  beautiful.  To  sacrifice 
all,  even  principle,  for  another  —  what  higher  proof  of 
affection  can  there  be?  O  miserable  sophistry!  The 
only  true  affection  is  that  which  is  subordinate  to  a  higher. 

3 


34 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


It  has  been  truly  said  that  in  those  who  love  little,  love  is 
a  primary  affection, — a  secondary  one  in  those  who  love 
much.  Be  sure  he  cannot  love  another  much  ‘  who  loves 
not  honor  more.’  ”  It  is  unsanctified  and  Rebekah-like 
love  which  to-day  prompts  the  mother  to  conceal  her 
son’s  waywardness  and  encourages  him  to  seek  the  com¬ 
panionship  of  worldly  people  because  they  are  people  of 
fashion ;  which  prompts  her  to  teach  her  daughter  to  ac¬ 
cept  the  attentions  of  an  evil  man  because  he  has  wealth 
or  social  position. 

Again,  in  Rebekah’s  plot  we  see  one  of  the  earliest  ex¬ 
amples  of  doing  evil  that  good  may  come.  This  satanic 
suggestion  that  the  end  justifies  the  means  still  comes  to 
us  all.  Sometimes  it  is  very  hard  to  wait  for  God’s  provi¬ 
dence.  A  slight  effort  of  our  own,  a  trifling  misrepre¬ 
sentation,  an  unnoticed  evasion,  an  ambiguous  letter,  a 
little  intrigue  —  and  the  prize,  already  so  near,  may  be¬ 
come  our  own.  What  are  natural  shrewdness  and  fore¬ 
sight  given  us  for  if  not  to  help  ourselves  with  ?  And  so 
we  pluck  the  fruit  before  it  is  ripe.  These  attempts  to 
force  the  hand  of  God  are  faithless  and  foolish.  God 
had  promised  that  Jacob  should  have  the  birthright. 
Could  not  Rebekah  trust  His  word  and  wait  His  time  ? 
We  cannot  declare  too  plainly  or  too  emphatically  that 
however  good  or  sacred  the  end  in  view  all  fraud  and  de¬ 
ception  and  crookedness  are  hateful  to  God.  As  holy 
George  Herbert  manfully  says,  “  Dare  to  be  true;  noth¬ 
ing  can  need  a  lie.”  And  shall  we  gain  any  real  and 
permanent  good  by  craft  ?  We  are  told  that  high  eccle¬ 
siastical  honors,  the  temporal  prosperity  of  parishes  and 
dioceses,  liberal  endowments  for  educational  and  chari¬ 
table  institutions  are  frequently  thus  secured ;  that  the 
fortunes  of  many  estimable  laymen  can  be  traced  back  to 


The  Counter-Plot. 


35 


some  such  turning-point.  But  the  unanimous  voice  of 
Christian  experience  assures  us  that  while  God  brings 
good  out  of  evil,  nevertheless,  every  short  cut  to  success 
and  every  fraudulent  gain  carries  its  own  penalty  with  it. 
And  what  has  been  our  own  experience  ?  What  have  we 
gained  by  trickery  ?  Either  we  have  failed  to  win  by  our 
arts,  or  they  have  recoiled  against  ourselves,  or  our  seem¬ 
ing  success  is  but  temporary,  and  in  reality  a  curse  and 
not  a  blessing.  “  That  which  is  won  ill  will  never  wear 
well.”  Thank  God,  the  Church  of  the  English-speaking 
people  has  never  failed  to  maintain  that  guile  is  a  proof 
of  weakness;  that  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian  must  play 
the  man  and  speak  the  truth  ! 

Furthermore,  this  old  narrative  is  clear  in  its  morals. 
We  see  that  Rebekah  cannot  sin  and  go  free.  The  pun¬ 
ishment  God  meted  out  to  her  was  poetical  in  its  justice. 
In  a  few  days  her  dear  Jacob,  for  whom  she  sinned,  is 
sent  empty-handed  away  from  home;  and  his  mother 
never  sees  him  again  in  this  world. 

What  we  all  want,  then,  is  a  heart  that  is  free  from 
guile.  One  of  the  English  poets  tells  us,  “  An  honest 
man  ’s  the  noblest  work  of  God,”  and  the  Psalmist  said, 
”  Truly  God  is  loving  unto  Israel,  even  unto  such  as  are 
of  a  clean  heart.”  “  Blessed  is  the  man  unto  whom  the 
Lord  imputeth  not  iniquity,  and  in  whose  spirit  there  is  no 
guile,” — one,  that  is,  whose  daily  life  is  quite  free  from 
oblique  arts  and  treacherous  thoughts,  who  has  no  deceit 
or  craftiness  in  him  ;  who  possesses  his  soul  with  patience 
when  his  plans  seem  to  miscarry,  and  when  things  turn 
against  him  holds  fast  to  his  faith  that  God  will  in  due 
season  “  make  his  righteousness  as  clear  as  the  light, 
and  his  just  dealing  as  the  noonday.”  No  other  inner 
life  can  please  a  holy  God  or  win  His  reward  here  or 


36  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

hereafter.  Sincerity,  honesty,  straightforward  ways  and 
words,  are  therefore  the  ideals  which  we  must  ever  set 
before  ourselves.  The  story  of  Rebekah’s  guile  will  not 
have  been  written  in  vain  if  it  leads  one  of  us  to  form  the 
resolution  henceforth  to  forsake  such  hateful  practices; 
to  be  sure  that  we  not  only  aim  to  accomplish  ends  that 
are  honorable,  but  that  we  also  seek  to  bring  them  to 
pass  by  means  equally  fair  and  open,  never  forgetting 
that 


“  Him,  only  him,  the  shield  of  Heaven  defends 
Whose  means  are  fair  and  spotless  as  his  ends.” 


THE  STOLEN  BLESSING. 


WEDNESDAY  AFTER  THE  FIRST  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  The  voice  is  Jacob’s  voice,  but  the  hands  are  the  hands  of  Esau.” — 
Gen.  xxvii.  22. 

TO-DAY  we  reach  the  story  of  the  stolen  blessing. 

When  his  mother  proposed  the  plot  to  Jacob,  his 
conscience  for  a  time  held  him  back.  A  philosopher  has 
said  that  some  persons  follow  the  dictates  of  their  con¬ 
science  only  in  the  sense  in  which  a  coachman  may  be 
said  to  follow  the  horses  he  is  driving.  If  this  be  a  cor¬ 
rect  description  of  Rebekah’s  present  relation  to  her 
conscience  we  might  add  that  when  she  whipped  up  the 
horses  they  started  off  at  full  speed.  Jacob — to  carry  on 
the  illustration — might  be  described  as  a  passenger  who, 
with  many  misgivings,  has  been  all  but  thrust  into  the 
coach  by  force  of  hands,  yet  who  soon,  entering  into  the 
spirit  of  the  adventure,  resolves  to  expect  a  safe  and 
profitable  journey. 

To  return  to  the  narrative:  Jacob,  with  the  goatskins 
upon  his  neck,  took  the  savory  dish  in  his  hand  and  en¬ 
tered  his  father’s  chamber.  Carefully  imitating  Esau’s 
voice,  he  addressed  Isaac  with  the  usual  Oriental  saluta¬ 
tion.  Isaac  failed  to  recognize  the  disguised  tones;  and 
in  some  uncertainty  the  blind  old  eyes  turned  toward  the 
visitor  and  the  feeble  voice  inquired,  “  Who  art  thou, 
my  son  ?  ”  Jacob  had  hoped  to  accomplish  his  purpose 
— to  secure  his  own — with  a  few  “  white  lies,”  and  with 
no  great  effort.  Now  his  keen  mind  is  instantly  awake 


37 


38 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


to  the  fact  that  he  has  entered  upon  a  hazardous  under¬ 
taking.  If  he  would  succeed  he  must  allay  his  father’s 
suspicions  at  whatever  cost.  Without  a  moment’s  hesi¬ 
tation  he  shows  himself  an  accomplished  liar;  heaping 
falsehood  upon  falsehood:  “  I  am  Esau,  thy  first-born  ” 
—  lie  number  one;  “  I  have  done  according  as  thou 
badest  me  ” — lie  number  two;  “  Arise,  I  pray  thee,  and 
eat  of  my  venison  ” — lie  number  three.  One  lie  usually 
requires  another  to  support  or  conceal  it  ;  and  Jacob 
soon  found  himself  “  drifting,  drifting  from  the  great 
shore  of  truth,  like  one  carried  out  by  the  tide  against 
his  will.”  Surprised  that  Esau  should  have  returned  so 
early  from  the  hunt,  Isaac  asks,  with  the  curiosity  of 
age,  ”  How  is  it  that  thou  hast  found  it  so  quickly,  my 
son  ?”  With  reckless  blasphemy  Jacob  declares  that 
God  has  helped  him,  “  Because  the  Lord  thy  God 
brought  it  to  me,”  or,  more  literally,  ”  Because  the 
Lord  thy  God  gave  me  good  speed.”  But  even  in  this 
solemn  assertion  the  sharp  ear  of  the  blind  old  man  de¬ 
tects  an  accent  which  arouses  his  suspicions  afresh  and 
he  determines  to  satisfy  himself  by  the  sense  of  touch. 

And  Isaac  said  unto  Jacob,  Come  near,  I  pray  thee, 
that  I  may  feel  thee,  my  son,  whether  thou  be  my  very 
son  Esau  or  not;”  and  Jacob,  with  a  boldness  worthy  of 
a  better  cause,  “  went  near  unto  Isaac,  his  father;  and  he 
felt  him,  and  said,  The  voice  is  Jacob’s  voice,  but  the 
hands  are  the  hands  of  Esau  ;  ”  and  he  said,  apparently 
satisfied  when  he  had  felt  the  hair  of  the  goat-skins,  but 
still  demanding  one  more  positive  and  unqualified  asser¬ 
tion,  ”  Art  thou  my  very  son  Esau  ?  ”  “  Had  it  been 

I,”  says  Martin  Luther,  “  I  should  have  let  the  dish  fall 
and  run  away  in  terror.”  But  Jacob  is  ready  for  the  last 
lie.  Each  step  in  his  downfall  is  marked  with  grosser 


The  Stolen  Blessing. 


39 


hypocrisy  and  deeper  guilt  —  so  facile  is  the  descent  into 
Avernus — and  Jacob  declares,  with  unruffled  composure, 

I  am. 

Isaac’s  doubts  were  dispelled.  He  accepted  the  sa¬ 
vory  meat,  the  bread  and  the  wine,  and  bestowed  upon 
the  impostor  the  blessing  of  Abraham.  Both  temporal 
and  spiritual  dominion  were  imparted  to  Jacob.  He 
should  possess  “  the  fatness  of  the  land,  and  be  lord  over 
his  brethren.”  Although  Isaac  believed  that  he  was 
blessing  Esau  his  words  were  inspired,  for  unconsciously 
he  was  fulfilling  the  will  of  God.  Jacob  was  the  chosen 
heir  of  the  Covenant,  the  blessing  belonged  to  him,  and, 
in  spite  of  his  father’s  sin  in  seeking  to  give  it  to  an¬ 
other,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  secured  it  by  tricks  and 
treachery,  the  blessing  was  duly  and  actually  made  over 
to  him  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  God:— “ And  his 
father  Isaac  said  unto  him,  Come  near  now,  and  kiss  me, 
my  son.  And  he  came  near  and  kissed  him :  and  he 
smelled  the  smell  of  his  raiment,  and  blessed  him,  and 
said,  See,  the  smell  of  my  son  is  as  the  smell  of  a  field 
which  the  Lord  hath  blessed :  Therefore  God  give  thee 
of  the  dew  of  heaven,  and  the  fatness  of  the  earth,  and 
plenty  of  corn  and  wine :  Let  people  serve  thee,  and 
nations  bow  down  to  thee:  be  lord  over  thy  brethren, 
and  let  thy  mother’s  sons  bow  down  to  thee:  cursed  be 
every  one  that  curseth  thee,  and  blessed  be  he  that 
blesseth  thee.”  This  blessing  was  a  prophecy  which  was 
fulfilled  to  the  letter  in  the  days  to  come.  It  bestowed 
upon  the  Heel-catcher  and  Supplanter  the  primacy  he 
had  long  coveted  and  plotted  for,  which  he  finally  won 
by  shameful  fraud. 

Jacob’s  sin  in  all  its  naked  hideousness  is  frankly  set 
down  in  Scripture  narrative,  and  we  have  not  attempted 


40 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


to  gloss  over  the  record.  But  Jacob  is  the  hero  of  the 
tale;  his  future  course  is  to  occupy  our  thoughts  during 
the  days  of  Lent ;  and  you  will  naturally  ask  whether 
nothing  can  be  said  in  excuse  or  extenuation  of  his  sin. 
Yes,  there  are  excuses  for  Jacob. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  one  whom  he  loved  and  regarded 
as  wiser  and  holier  than  himself  led  him  into  temptation. 
And  Rebekah  was  a  tempter  of  the  tempters.  A  woman 
of  great  strength  of  character,  of  quick  wit  and  pleasing 
manner,  she  had  also  the  advantage  of  the  experiences 
of  age.  In  these  days  we  hear  a  great  deal  of  “  mag¬ 
netic  ”  men  and  of  their  success  as  politicians,  promoters, 
and  leaders;  of  the  “  new  ”  woman  and  her  ingeni¬ 
ous,  irresistible,  audacious  methods  of  accomplishing 
her  own  ends.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  although  it  may 
seem  a  strange  thing  to  our  ears,  there  is  no  human  being 
so  difficult  to  resist,  so  absolutely  sure  of  having  her  own 
way,  as  a  strong,  shrewd,  wily,  determined  old  woman  of 
gentle  blood  and  breeding.  Age  multiplies  her  power. 
Of  this  fact  the  great  masters  of  fiction  are  not  ignorant, 
and  it  is  corroborated  by  our  own  experience.  And  if  to 
strength  of  will,  and  the  lessons  of  past  failures  and  suc¬ 
cesses,  and  long  practice  in  the  art  of  persuasion  we  add 
a  deep  religious  conviction  that  she  is  called  to  be  an  in¬ 
strument  in  fulfilling  the  designs  of  Providence  —  in  such 
hands  the  best  of  us  are  as  wax.  Jacob  was  outmatched. 

2.  We  should  also  remember  that  Jacob  felt  a  prick  of 
conscience  when  the  wickedness  was  proposed  to  him, 
which  is  more  than  can  be  said  for  any  other  actor  in  this 
domestic  drama;  and  that  he  had  little  beside  that  prick 
of  conscience  to  restrain  him.  Our  present  moral  stand¬ 
ard  has  been  a  matter  of  slow  growth.  Take  the  utter¬ 
ances  of  two  representative  Church  people  as  the  best 


The  Stolen  Blessing. 


4i 


nineteenth-century  estimate  of  all  over-reaching,  deceit, 
and  guile.  Mrs.  Jameson  writes:  “  All  my  own  experi¬ 
ence  of  life  teaches  me  the  contempt  of  cunning,  not  the 
fear.  I  never  knew  a  cunning  mind  which  was  not  either 
shallow,  or,  on  some  points,  diseased.”  Mr.  Ruskin, 
speaking  of  the  same  failing,  says:  ”  It  is  the  intensest 
rendering  of  vulgarity,  absolute  and  utter.”  But  in 
Jacob’s  day  the  race  had  reached  no  such  standard  of 
manners  or  morals.  It  is  more  than  possible  that  Jacob’s 
guile  was  recorded,  for  one  reason,  to  teach  the  ages  all 
along  a  nobler  and  diviner  code. 

3.  Notice,  too,  that  when  he  lied  and  personated  and 
blasphemed,  Jacob  was  an  unconverted  man.  He  had 
received  the  rite  of  circumcision,  he  had  enjoyed  a  re¬ 
ligious  training,  but  as  yet  he  had  seen  no  Ladder-vision 
nor  wrestled  with  any  nameless  Friend.  His  sin  was  the 
sin  of  one  who  has  never  consciously  dedicated  himself  to 
God’s  service  or  felt  the  touch  of  heaven  upon  his  heart. 

4.  Again,  Jacob  was  punished  for  his  sin.  At  once  he 
was  banished  from  his  home  for  years  and  from  his 
mother  forever.  All  his  life  long  this  deceiver  was  de- 
ceived ;  and  he  received  the  due  reward  of  his  deeds. 
Let  us  pity  Jacob,  then,  and  judge  him  with  no  hard 
judgment;  for  it  is  written  of  him,  “  Blessed  be  he  that 
blesseth  thee,”  and  we  would  make  that  blessing  our 
own. 

The  story  of  Jacob’s  temptation  and  fall  also  suggests 
two  practical  lessons,  one  of  warning,  one  of  encourage¬ 
ment. 

The  fact  that  he  was  led  into  evil  by  another'  may 
admonish  us  to  watch  and  pray  lest  we  lead  into  tempta¬ 
tion  those  who  love  and  trust  us.  Holy  men  speak  of 
nine  ways  of  leading  others  into  sin,  or  of  participating 


42 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


in  another’s  sin :  by  counsel,  by  command,  by  consent, 
by  provocation,  by  praise  or  flattery,  by  concealment,  by 
partaking,  by  silence,  by  defence  of  the  ill  done.  In 
each  and  every  one  of  these  ways  Rebekah  participated 
in  Jacob’s  sin.  To  make  a  careful  self-examination  lest 
in  some  of  these  ways  our  own  influence  and  example  be 
evil  will  be  work  for  Lent. 

The  lesson  of  encouragement  is,  that  although  Jacob 
sinned  God  did  not  cast  him  off  or  cease  to  love  him. 
He  brought  good  out  of  evil;  and  finally  Jacob  became 
the  Prince  of  God.  Let  us  take  courage.  We  may  see 
in  ourselves  much  that  was  in  fallen  Jacob;  but  if  God 
chastened  and  forgave  and  loved  him,  surely  there  is 
hope  for  us.  “  Though  ye  have  lain  among  the  pots, 
yet  shall  ye  be  as  the  wings  of  a  dove  that  is  covered  with 
silver  wings,  and  her  feathers  like  gold.” 


THE  BITTER  CRY. 


THURSDAY  AFTER  THE  FIRST  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  when  Esau  heard  the  words  of  his  father,  he  cried  with  a  great 
and  exceeding  bitter  cry,  and  said  unto  his  father,  Bless  me,  even  me  also, 
O  my  father.” — Gen.  xxvii.  34. 

ISAAC’S  blindness  made  possible  the  deception  prac¬ 
tised  upon  him.  Of  all  the  ills  which  flesh  is  heir  to, 
probably  few  of  us  would,  if  we  had  the  power  of  choice, 
choose  blindness.  The  thought  of  sightlessness  brings 
with  it  the  chill  of  death.  To  see  no  more  the  stars  that 
gem  the  sky,  the  flowers  that  jewel  the  green  robe  of 
nature,  the  lights  and  shadows  dancing  on  the  hills,  in 
helplessness  to  be  fed  and  led,  to  read  no  more,  nor  ever 
again  to  see  in  this  world  the  faces  that  we  love  —  this  is 
blindness.  Nevertheless  the  blind  man  clings  to  life, 
and  does  good  or  evil,  is  good  or  evil,  even  as  we 
who  have  sight.  In  blind  Milton’s  lament  for  his  lost 
sight  there  is  a  beautiful  prayer  which  might  well  be 
offered  by  those  whose  natural  sight  is  undimmed : 
“Thou,  Celestial  Light,  shine  inward;  all  mists  from 
thence  purge  and  disperse.” 

Blind  Isaac  was  on  the  side  of  righteousness;  his  life 
in  its  controlling  purposes,  in  the  habit  of  its  career,  was 
a  God-fearing  life;  but  for  once  and  for  the  time  being 
he  has  fallen  into  mortal  sin.  In  the  sinfulness  of  self- 
will  he  decides  to  bless  profane  Esau ;  he  thinks  he  has 
accomplished  his  purpose;  in  reality  he  has  imparted  the 
blessing  to  Jacob,  who  in  his  dissimulation  and  his 


43 


44 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 

disguise  is,  after  all,  the  son  to  whom  the  blessing  belongs. 
But  the  blind  old  man  believes  that  he  has  blessed  Esau, 
his  first-born  and  the  best  beloved.  When  Jacob  retires 
with  his  blessing  Isaac  doubtless  reclines  upon  his  couch 
of  skin  in  the  buoyant  and  blithesome  contentment  of  a 
man  who  has  made  his  point.  Notwithstanding  his 
blindness  and  feebleness,  he  has  triumphed.  He  has  out¬ 
manoeuvred  his  manoeuvring  wife  and  out-plotted  his  plot¬ 
ting  son.  The  satisfaction  of  his  agreeable  reflections, 
however,  is  rudely  broken  into  by  a  loud  voice  and  a 
heavy  footfall  at  the  door.  “  And  it  came  to  pass,”  we 
read,  “  as  soon  as  Isaac  had  made  an  end  of  blessing 
Jacob,  and  Jacob  was  yet  scarce  gone  out  from  the  pre¬ 
sence  of  Isaac  his  father,  that  Esau  his  brother,”  the  real 
Esau,  “  came  in  from  his  hunting.”  The  startling  facts 
were  soon  discovered.  When  Isaac  realized  that  invol¬ 
untarily  and  unconsciously  he  had  blessed  the  Lord’s 
choice,  “he  trembled  very  exceedingly  —  he  trembled 
with  a  great  trembling,  greatly.”  He  did  not  tremble 
with  anger  at  the  duplicity  of  Rebekah  and  Jacob,  nor 
with  amazement  at  this  unexpected  defeat  of  his  heart’s 
desire;  he  trembled  with  alarm  at  the  sudden  retribution 
of  his  sin  in  attempting  to  thwart  the  purpose  of  God. 
H  e  was  the  heir  of  promise  and  he  had  the  spiritual  in¬ 
sight  at  once  to  perceive  the  hand  of  God  in  the  day’s 
doings  and  grace  to  submit  to  the  will  of  God.  “  I  have 
blessed  him,’’  he  said  to  Esau,  “yea,  and  he  shall  be 
blessed.  ’’ 

And  when  Esau  heard  the  words  of  his  father,  he 
cried  with  a  great  and  exceeding  bitter  cry,”  literally,  for 
the  expressive  Hebrew  words  are  more  graphic,  “  he 
cried  a  cry,  great  and  bitter  exceedingly,  and  said  unto 
his  father,  Bless  me,  even  me  also,  O  my  father.’’ 


The  Bitter  Cry. 


45 


In  this  mingled  cry  of  anger  and  envy  and  anguish 
Esau  showed  that  he  had  no  discernment  of  spiritual 
things.  He  did  not  recognize  the  hand  of  God  in  the 
events  of  the  day.  hie  looked  upon  his  father  merely  as 
a  powerful  chieftain  who  could  do  what  he  would  with  his 
own.  He  thought  the  blessing  of  Abraham  carried  with 
it  some  worldly  advantages  and  that  his  tears  and  suppli¬ 
cations  might  induce  his  father  to  change  his  mind  and 
give  him  a  part  at  least  of  the  inheritance.  To  this  bitter 
cry  Isaac  resolutely  refused  to  yield.  He  acknowledged 
Jacob’s  duplicity,  “  Thy  brother  came  with  subtility,”  at 
the  same  time  declaring  that  he  cannot  recall  the  past, 
for  “  he  hath  taken  away  thy  blessing.”  In  reply  Esau 
accused  his  brother  and  said,  “  Is  he  not  rightly  named 
Jacob — the  Supplanter,  the  Heel-catcher?  ”  Finding  that 
this  outburst  of  indignation  failed  to  move  his  father, 
he  resorted  once  more  to  tears  and  entreaties,  “  Hast 
thou  not  reserved  a  blessing  for  me,  O  my  father  ?  ” 
When  Esau  thus  sought  a  lesser  or  secondary  blessing 
he  had  in  mind  chiefly  the  “  corn  and  wine,”  earthly 
goods  and  earthly  honor ;  he  manifested  nothing  of 
that  spirit  which  animated  the  Syro-Phoenician  woman, 
of  whom  we  shall  read  in  next  Sunday’s  Gospel,  who  re¬ 
minded  our  Lord  that  even  the  dogs  eat  of  the  crumbs 
which  fall  from  their  master’s  table,  and  who  was  ready  to 
accept  any  spiritual  privilege  which  might  in  mercy  be  be¬ 
stowed  upon  her.  On  the  contrary  Esau  took  the  bitter 
and  envious  tone  of  the  elder  son  in  the  parable,  “  Thou 
never  gavest  me  a  kid.”  But  Esau  will  not  be  refused. 
With  a  persistency  and  a  pathos  which  touch  us  to  this 
day  he  cried  again,  “  Hast  thou  but  one  blessing,  my 
father  ?  Bless  me,  even  me  also,  O  my  father.  And 
Esau  lifted  up  his  voice  and  wept.” 


46 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


It  is  to  be  feared  that  one  of  our  hymns  which  contains 
the  refrain,  “  Even  me,  even  me,”  is  based  upon  an 
erroneous  interpretation  of  the  passage  before  us,  al¬ 
though  the  hymn  considered  in  itself  may  not  be  es¬ 
pecially  open  to  criticism.  It  is  certain  that  much 
harm  has  been  done  by  a  popular  misunderstanding  of 
the  New  Testament  reference  to  Esau’s  present  frame  of 
mind  and  heart.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  we 
read,  “  Esau  found  no  place  for  repentance,  though  he 
sought  it  carefully  with  tears.”  This  does  not  mean 
that  Esau  desired  to  repent  of  sins  and  could  not.  What 
could  be  falser  than  such  an  affirmation  ?  Whenever  any 
soul  anywhere  truly  seeks  to  repent,  repentance  has  al¬ 
ready  begun.  Esau  did  not  confess  that  he  had  sinned, 
he  felt  no  sorrow  for  sin,  he  made  no  resolution  of  amend¬ 
ment.  His  actual  spiritual  state  is  revealed  by  his  own 
words  :  “  The  days  of  mourning  for  my  father  are  at 
hand:  then  will  I  slay  my  brother  Jacob.”  When  he 
wept  before  his  father  his  tears  were  idle  tears;  they  did 
not  spring  from  the  depths  of  some  divine  despair.  There 
was  nothing  divine  in  his  grief.  His  repentance  consisted 
in  wishing  to  undo  what  had  been  done.  His  first 
thought  was  of  the  inheritance,  and  he  was,  in  fact,  con¬ 
testing  his  father’s  will  before  the  death  of  the  testator. 
It  may  be,  too,  that  as  he  wept  some  sobering  thought 
came  to  him  of  the  days  that  were  no  more.  If  so,  he  was 
learning  the  lesson  many  of  us  know  so  well.  The  clock 
will  not  strike  again  for  us  the  hours  that  are  gone.  The 
mill  will  not  grind  again  with  the  water  that  is  past. 
Deeds  are  irrevocable. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  false  repentance  which  may 
be  mentioned : 

i.  The  first  we  shall  call  a  Lent  Repentance.  Boswell, 


The  Bitter  Cry. 


47 


the  biographer  of  Dr.  Johnson,  furnishes  an  example. 
When  his  own  diary  saw  the  light  we  learned  that  he  was 
the  slave  of  two  besetting  and  deadly  sins.  Still,  as  Lent 
came  round,  he  made  his  vow  of  penitence  and  kept  it 
too — so  long  as  Lent  lasted.  He  gives  us  to  understand 
that  he  intended  to  wrestle  with  his  sin  and  keep  it  down 
only  until  Easter  Day.  “  Then,”  he  seems  to  say  with 
an  older  sinner,  ”  I  will  seek  it  yet  again.” 

2.  A  second  form  of  false  repentance  is  the  repentance 
of  one  who  is  found  out.  So  little  value  has  such  sorrow 
for  sin  that  it  seldom  leads  to  a  changed  life.  In  fact  it 
does  not  deserve  the  name  of  repentance,  for  it  regrets 
not  the  deed  but  its  detection.  As  some  one  has  said, 
“  Thou  shalt  not  get  found  out,”  is  not  one  of  God’s 
commandments,  and  no  man  can  be  saved  by  trying  to 
keep  it.  The  warning  of  Holy  Scripture  goes  further 
and  deeper:  “  Be  sure  your  sin  will  find  you  out.” 

3.  Esau  is  an  example  of  the  third  form  of  repentance. 
He  weeps  not  for  what  he  has  done  but  for  what  he  has 
lost.  The  past,  however,  is  unalterable.  Wasted  oppor¬ 
tunities,  words  of  passion,  deeds  of  shame,  can  never  be 
recalled.  We  must  reap  whatsoever  we  have  sown. 

Let  us  take  home  with  us  the  thought  of  a  true  repent¬ 
ance.  The  counterfeit  coin  is  proof  that  there  is  a 
genuine  coinage.  And  if  there  be  a  false  repentance  we 
know  that  there  is  a  godly  sorrow  for  sin.  The  marvel¬ 
lous  mercy  and  the  inexhaustible  and  inexpressible  love 
revealed  in  the  Gospel  still  hold  out  hope  for  us  all.  St. 
Paul  can  rejoice  that  his  converts  are  ”  made  sorry  after 
a  godly  manner.”  May  that  ”  godly  sorrow,”  which 
”  worketh  repentance  to  salvation  not  to  be  repented  of  ” 
be  felt  in  our  hearts  and  shown  forth  in  our  lives. 

Remember  too  that  from  Christ  our  Lord  comes  the 


48 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


grace  of  contrition  as  well  as  the  pardon  of  sin  and  the 
strength  for  amendment  of  life.  That  grace  enables  the 
true  penitent  to  see  and  feel  that  he  has  broken  his 
Heavenly  Father’s  law  and  grieved  that  Father’s  heart 
of  love;  the  thought  which  dominates  all  his  thoughts 
and  never  leaves  him  is,  that  he  has  sinned  against  God. 
This  is  the  language  of  his  heart:  “  Against  Thee  only 
have  I  sinned  and  done  this  evil  in  Thy  sight.”  And  it 
follows  that  the  genuineness  of  sorrow  for  sin  is  proved 
when  our  sorrows  “  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repent¬ 
ance.”  In  the  terse  statement  of  St.  Ambrose,  “  True 
repentance  is  to  cease  from  sin.” 


“  ’T  is  to  bewail  the  sins  thou  didst  commit ; 
And  not  commit  those  sins  thou  hast  bewailed. 
He  that  bewails,  and  not  forsakes  them  too, 
Confesses  rather  what  he  means  to  do.” 


THE  ANGER  OF  ESAU. 


FRIDAY  AFTER  THE  FIRST  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  Esau  hated  Jacob  because  of  the  blessing  wherewith  his  father 
blessed  him  :  And  Esau  said  in  his  heart,  The  days  of  mourning  for  my 
father  are  at  hand  ;  then  will  I  slay  my  brother  Jacob.” — Gen.  xxvii.  41. 

WHAT  a  man  says  in  his  heart  reveals  the  man. 

The  inward  conversation  is  a  spiritual  barometer 
which  the  Recording  Angel  keeps  ever  under  his  sight. 
When  Esau  discovered  that  his  brother  had  over-reached 
him  and  won  the  blessing,  his  anger  knew  no  bounds; 
he  “  hated  Jacob,”  we  are  told,  “  and  said  in  his  heart, 
I  will  slay  my  brother.” 

The  hating  heart  still  remains  upon  the  earth.  Our 
text,  which  calls  attention  to  the  sin  of  anger,  is,  there¬ 
fore,  neither  obsolete  nor  untimely. 

The  word  “anger  ”  is  derived  from  a  Latin  root  signify¬ 
ing,  primarily,  a  choking ,  an  oppression  of  the  throat.  An¬ 
ger  has  been  defined  as  “  a  strong  passion  or  emotion  of 
the  mind,  excited  by  a  real  or  supposed  injury  to,  or  intent 
to  injure,  one’s  self  or  others.”  It  has  also  been  called 
a  temporary  madness.”  But  we  all  know  what  anger 
is.  Derivations  and  definitions  are  superfluous. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  times  and  occasions  when  we 
have  a  right  to  be  angry.  There  is  a  righteous  indigna¬ 
tion.  Our  Blessed  Lord  Himself  knew  such  anger,  for 
he  fiercely  rebuked  oppression  and  hypocrisy,  and  with 
bitter  words  and  blows  drove  the  money-changers  from 

the  temple.  The  Epistles  recognize  this  aspect  of  the 
4 


49 


50 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


subject:  “  Be  ye  angry  and  sin  not;  let  not  the  sun  go 
down  upon  your  wrath  ;  ”  If  it  be  possible,  as  much  as 
lieth  in  you,  live  peaceably  with  all  men.” 

These,  and  other  similar  passages,  teach  us  that  there 
are  times  when  we  cannot  keep  down  our  anger,  and  that 
there  are  some  things  against  which  it  would  be  a  sin  not 
to  feel  the  keenest  anger.  And  what  is  it  that  justifies 
anger  ?  In  plain,  unmistakable  words,  when  and  where 
is  wrath  a  Christian  virtue  ?  Let  a  holy  man  of  old  give 
us  the  answer:  ”  He  that  would  be  angry  and  sin  not, 
must  not  be  angry  with  anything  but  sin.” 

On  the  other  hand  do  we  not  all  know  to  our  sorrow 
that  there  is  an  anger  like  Esau’s,  an  anger  which  is  not 
righteous,  which  is  evil  from  its  inception,  or,  if  justified 
at  first,  soon  develops  into  the  blackest  guilt  ?  That  sin 
the  Church  has  placed  in  the  list  of  the  seven  deadly  sins. 
And  like  other  sins,  this  sin  of  anger  passes  through  the 
three  phases  of  thought,  word,  and  deed.  Almost  irre¬ 
sistibly,  and  sometimes  with  astonishing  rapidity,  anger 
proceeds  from  thought  to  word  and  from  word  to  deed. 

In  a  Lenten  sermon  we  expect  plain-speaking.  Now, 
the  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  we  Americans  are  an  irri¬ 
table  and  short-tempered  people.  One  of  the  first  things 
we  notice  in  travelling  abroad  is  the  universal  good- 
temper  of  the  natives;  even  the  surly  Briton  seems  to  us 
a  model  of  pleasantness  and  amiability.  A  young 
American  once  journeyed  direct  from  a  southwestern 
frontier  town  to  London.  In  that  frontier  settlement 
one  room  was  the  post-office,  hotel  parlor,  department 
store,  saloon,  and  only  place  of  general  assemblage. 
And  every  night  a  company  of  desperadoes  came  in  from 
the  hills  and  took  possession.  Finally  a  quiet,  slender 
young  man,  who  thought  he  could  maintain  order,  was 


The  Anger  of  Esau. 


5i 


installed  behind  the  bar.  He  used  the  only  effective 
measures  and  soon  was  master  of  the  place.  But  it  was 
noticed  that  whenever  this  quiet  young  man  shot  to  kill, 
he  first  turned  pale  with  anger.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
somewhere  says  that  when  the  fighting  boy  of  his  school 
met  the  village  bully,  the  issue  ceased  to  be  doubtful  as 
soon  as  the  students’  champion  turned  pale.  But  in 
London,  during  his  stay  of  several  months,  our  traveller 
did  not  see  a  single  man  turn  pale  with  anger.  Neither 
can  it  be  denied  that  the  American  woman  has  a  temper 
of  her  own.  Are  not  sharp  words,  sullen  looks,  and 
angry  actions,  on  the  part  of  women  of  station  and  refine¬ 
ment,  frequently  to  be  observed  in  our  streets  and  cars 
and  shops  ?  In  the  old  country,  on  the  contrary,  such 
manifestations,  as  many  witnesses  bear  record,  are  very 
rare.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  our  homes  ?  We  may 
cast  the  blame  upon  our  dry  climate,  which  is  doubtless 
bad  for  the  nerves.  Still  the  fact  remains  that  in  multi¬ 
tudes  of  our  Christian  homes  angry  women’s  voices  rise, 
frightening  happiness  away.  Do  sweet  and  sunny  tem¬ 
pers  really  reign  in  your  home  ?  Then  you  need  envy 
none,  and  you  have  much  to  be  thankful  for.  I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  if  one  of  those  ingenious  instru¬ 
ments  invented  by  Mr.  Edison,  which  receives  and  repro¬ 
duces  all  that  is  said  before  it,  were  placed  in  all  our 
homes  and  opened  on  Sunday  morning  in  a  general  gath¬ 
ering  of  the  family,  so  that  each  one  of  us  could  hear 
every  word  we  had  spoken  in  the  home  during  the  week, 
and  catch  the  actual  tone  and  accent,  we  might,  when  we 
reached  church,  pray  with  a  far  deeper  sense  of  need, 
“  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  miserable  sinners.”  Real, 
practical,  every-day  Christianity  often  turns  upon  this 
yery  question  of  temper.  And  the  more  we  think  of  it 


52 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


the  more  truth  there  seems  to  be  in  that  somewhat  start¬ 
ling  saying  attributed  to  a  well-known  English  bishop, 
“  Temper  is  nine  tenths  of  Christianity.” 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  temper,  good  and  bad,  is 
catching.  In  an  old  letter,  James  Freeman  Clarke  de¬ 
scribes  a  journey  from  his  home  in  Boston  to  Kentucky. 
He  travelled  by  stage-coach,  and  he  noticed  that  one 
cross  and  complaining  and  ill-natured  passenger  could  put 
all  the  others  out  of  temper.  “  But  once,”  he  says, 

when  journeying  through  the  Cattaraugus  woods, 
where  the  road  was  mostly  deep  mire  or  rough  corduroy, 
and  there  was  every  temptation  to  be  cross  and  uncom¬ 
fortable,  one  man  so  enlivened  and  entertained  our  party? 
and  was  so  accommodating  and  good-natured,  that  we 
seemed  to  be  having  a  pleasant  picnic,  and  the  other  in¬ 
mates  of  the  coach  took  the  same  tone.”  What  was  true 
of  that  old  stage-coach  is  true  to-day  of  the  shop,  the 
office,  the  mill,  the  school,  and  the  home. 

But  alas!  the  evil  of  which  we  are  speaking  does  not 
end  in  the  miseries  of  social  unpleasantness.  What  a 
brood  of  malignant  passions  and  fiendish  deeds  springs 
from  this  one  root-sin.  Every  student  knows  the  sig¬ 
nificance  of  words.  Let  us  take  a  partial  list  of  the  words 
in  our  own  tongue,  in  common  use,  which  express  some 
of  the  phases  of  this  sin  of  anger:  Prejudice,  false  judg¬ 
ment,  envy,  malice,  spite,  antipathy,  displeasure,  enmity, 
abhorrence,  animosity,  aversion,  detestation,  dislike, 
grudge,  hostility,  ill-will,  malevolence,  malignity,  rancor, 
repugnance,  revenge,  choler,  exasperation,  ire,  irritation, 
offence,  impatience,  fretfulness,  indignation,  passion, 
peevishness,  pettishness,  petulance,  acrimony,  acer¬ 
bity,  asperity,  bitterness,  unkindness,  virulence,  caustic¬ 
ity,  harshness,  moroseness,  severity,  sourness,  tartness, 


The  Anger  of  Esau. 


53 


churlishness,  crabbedness,  crustiness,  doggedness,  gloomi¬ 
ness,  gruffness,  ill-humor,  snappishness,  sulkiness,  sullen¬ 
ness,  surliness,  abusiveness,  quarrelsomeness,  savageness, 
vindictiveness,  hatred,  wrath,  rage,  fury,  cruelty,  murder. 
This  list  is  not  exhaustive,  and  yet  what  a  catalogue  of 
unlovely  human  characteristics  do  these  words  reveal! 
We  must  admit,  too,  that  these  words  were  not  coined 
needlessly,  and  that  each  one  of  them  really  does  describe 
some  manifestation  in  men  and  women  of  this  root-sin  of 
anger. 

Take  hatred  alone.  If  ever  you  hated  any  one,  you 
know  what  unhappiness  is.  Hannah  More  said,  If  I 
wanted  to  punish  an  enemy,  it  would  be  by  fastening  on 
him  the  trouble  of  constantly  hating  somebody.”  And 
hatred  soon  passes  into  a  longing  for  revenge.  “  I  will 
get  even  with  him.”  Does  that  thought  come  to  you 
from  time  to  time  ?  Banish  it,  for  it  comes  straight  from 
hell.  In  our  text  Esau  declared  that  he  would  have  re¬ 
venge —  “  I  will  kill  my  brother.”  Truly  says  the 
Apostle  of  love,  “  He  that  hateth  his  brother  is  a  mur¬ 
derer.”  “  And  ye  know,”  he  says  again,  “  that  no 
murderer  hath  eternal  life  abiding  in  him.” 

As  Christians  we  are  pledged  to  follow  the  example  of 
our  Saviour  Christ,  who,  when  He  was  reviled,  reviled 
not  again ;  and  forgave  and  prayed  for  those  who  did  the 
wrong.  To  cherish  hatred,  to  be  unforgiving,  to  long 
for  revenge,  is  to  be  un-Christlike.  All  who  have  ever 
been  close  followers  of  the  Master  have  been  forgiving. 
Of  Cranmer  it  was  said,  “  If  you  want  him  to  do  you  a 
good  turn  you  must  do  him  a  bad  one.” 

And  now  comes  the  practical  question,  how  shall  we 
overcome  this  sin  ?  Jeremy  Taylor’s  rule  is  a  good  one: 
“  If  anger  arises  suddenly  and  violently,  first  restrain  it 


54 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


with  consideration,  and  then  let  it  end  in  a  hearty  prayer 
for  him  who  did  the  real  or  seeming  injury.  The  former 
of  the  two  stops  its  growth;  the  latter  quite  kills  it.” 

To  forgive  is  Christlike.  Not  to  forgive  unfits  us  to 
receive  the  Holy  Communion  or  to  say  the  Lord’s  Prayer. 
Wherefore  ”  let  all  bitterness  and  wrath  and  anger  and 
clamor  and  evil  speaking  be  put  away  from  you,  with 
all  malice.  And  be  ye  kind  one  to  another,  tender¬ 
hearted,  forgiving  one  another,  even  as  God  for  Christ’s 
sake  hath  forgiven  you.” 


THE  DAUGHTERS  OF  HETH. 


SATURDAY  AFTER  THE  FIRST  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  Rebekah  said  unto  Isaac,  I  am  weary  of  my  life  because  of  the 
daughters  of  Heth.” — Gen.  xxvii.  46. 

WHAT  was  the  cause  and  occasion  of  this  character¬ 
istic  utterance  of  the  text  ?  It  was  the  quarrel 
between  Esau  and  Jacob.  Jacob  had  deceived  his  father 
and  gained  the  blessing  of  promise.  Esau  had  received  a 
lesser  blessing  —  a  fat  land  and  a  roving  life  —  the  career 
for  which  he  had  prepared  himself.  And  so  his  name 
henceforth  became  “  Edom  ”  and  his  children  were  called 
the  Edomites.  Later  on  Jacob’s  name  also  was  changed 
and  he  became  “  Israel  ”  and  his  descendants  were  the 
children  of  Israel.  And  there  was  enmity  between  the 
two. 

The  blessings  of  Isaac  were,  therefore,  prophecies  as 
well  as  blessings,  as  the  commentators  have  pointed  out, 
and  were  not  limited  to  the  personal  histories  of  the  twin 
brothers,  but  prefigured  also  the  destinies  of  the  nations 
of  which  they  were  the  founders.  In  this  sense  we  are 
to  interpret  the  words  of  a  later  Scripture,  “  Jacob  have 
I  loved  but  Esau  have  I  hated.”  Edom  was  for  cen¬ 
turies  the  foe  of  Israel  and  then  became  the  synonym  of 
evil,  while  Israel  represented  the  cause  of  God  in  the 
world  and  foretold  the  Church  of  Christ.  Jacob  was  the 
spiritual  man  and  to  him  belonged  the  spiritual  heritage; 
Esau  was  the  natural  man  and  could  be  the  legitimate 
heir  only  of  the  things  of  the  world.  In  this  larger  sense 


55 


56 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


they  were  pictures  and  prophecies,  for  an  age  which  re¬ 
quired  such  concrete  conceptions,  to  represent  the  prin¬ 
ciples  of  good  and  evil  and  the  conflict  between  them. 
Neither  was  the  representation  marred  by  the  fact  that 
one  brother  was  not  wholly  good  nor  the  other  wholly 
bad.  One  believed  in  the  earth,  and  the  other  believed 
in  the  things  above  his  head.  Here  was  a  distinction, 
vital,  unmistakable.  The  rudest  tribesman  would  in¬ 
stantly  grasp  the  significance  of  that  distinction. 

And  Esau  hated  Jacob  because  of  the  blessing  where¬ 
with  his  father  blessed  him  ” —  a  hatred  that  lasted  as 
long  as  the  nations  of  Edom  and  Israel  lasted,  a  hatred 
that  still  lasts.  “  And  Esau  said  in  his  heart,  The  days 
of  mourning  for  my  father  are  at  hand ;  then  will  I  slay 
my  brother  Jacob.”  In  these  words  we  see  that  while 
Esau  stands  for  the  principle  of  evil  he  was  not  himself 
entirely  devoid  of  good  natural  feelings  and  dispositions. 
He  loved  his  father.  He  would  not  embitter  his  father’s 
dying  hours  with  the  horror  of  bloodshed.  He  would 
wait  until  his  father  died  in  peace,  was  decently  buried, 
and  dutifully  mourned  for;  then  he  would  murder  Jacob. 

We  are  told  that  Esau  “  said  in  his  heart  I  will  slay  my 
brother!  ”  As  the  days  passed,  however,  he  probably 
took  some  of  his  dependants  or  hunting  companions  into 
his  confidence,  for  his  mother  was  in  some  way  informed 
of  his  determination  and  at  once  devised  a  plan  to  pre¬ 
vent  his  crime.  “  And  she  sent  and  called  Jacob,  her 
younger  son,  and  said  unto  him,  Behold,  thy  brother 
Esau,  as  touching  thee,  doth  comfort  himself,  purposing 
to  kill  thee.  Now,  therefore,  my  son,  obey  my  voice; 
and  arise,  flee  thou  to  Laban,  my  brother,  to  Haran;  and 
tarry  with  him  a  few  days,  until  thy  brother’s  fury  turn 
away.”  She  knows  that  Esau  is  an  impulsive  man.  If 


The  Daughters  of  Heth. 


57 


Jacob  will  keep  out  of  his  sight  for  a  few  days  she  is  con¬ 
fident  that  Esau’s  anger  will  subside.  “  Then  I  will  send 
and  fetch  you  from  thence;  for  why  should  I  be  deprived 
of  you  both  in  one  day  ?  ” 

Jacob  realized  his  danger  and  eagerly  agreed  to  this 
temporary  banishment  from  home.  But  Jacob  could  not 
go  away  without  his  father’s  knowledge  and  consent. 
To  win  that  consent  Rebekah  resorted  to  a  subterfuge. 
She  wished  to  conceal  from  Isaac  the  dreadful  tragedy 
which  brooded  over  his  house  —  surely  it  could  not  be 
wrong  to  let  the  old  man  die  in  peace;  and  so  she  once 
more  employed  those  subterranean  methods  in  the  use  of 
which  she  was  by  no  means  a  novice.  She  went  at  once 
to  Isaac’s  chamber  and  set  up  a  great  weeping  and  lamen¬ 
tation  over  the  shortcomings  of  Esau’s  heathen  wives: 
“  I  am  weary  of  my  life  because  of  the  daughters  of 
Heth!”  The  modern  querulousness  which  likewise  de¬ 
clares  its  weariness  of  life  and  asks,  “  Is  life  worth  liv¬ 
ing  ?  ”  if  not  as  insincere  as  Rebekah  was,  would  do  well 
to  ask  itself  if  Rebekah’s  sin  is  not  at  the  root  of  that 
inner  dissatisfaction  and  disappointment  which  prompts 
such  utterance.  Rebekah  craftily  continues  her  passion 
of  weeping,  will  not  hear  a  word  of  comfort,  holds  on 
with  her  assumed  grief,  and  keeps  it  up  until  she  sees  that 
her  husband  also  is  very  weary  of  the  little  life  that  re¬ 
mains  to  him.  At  this  point  she  is  ready  for  another 
move.  And  so,  calming  herself  somewhat,  she  shrewdly 
suggests,  without  seeming  to  do  so,  a  remedy  for  her  dis¬ 
tress:  “  If  Jacob  take  a  wife  of  the  daughters  of  Heth, 
which  are  the  daughters  of  the  land,  what  good  shall  my 
life  do  me  ?”  Man-like,  Isaac  walks  straight  into  the 
trap.  So  long  as  his  wife  wailed  over  the  faults  of  her 
daughters-in-law  he  was  as  helpless  as  any  man  in  similar 


58 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


circumstances,  but  when  Jacob  is  mentioned  he  sees  his 
way  clear.  “  Jacob  is  still  single,”  he  says,  ‘‘and  I  will  as¬ 
sert  my  authority  in  his  case.  The  boy  shall  do  as  I  did. 
He  shall  go  at  once  to  Padan-aram  and  get  a  wife.  I 
found  a  good  and  beautiful  wife  there  and  so  may  Jacob. 
Call  him,  and  I  will  start  him  on  his  journey.  We  will 
hear  no  more  of  the  daughters  of  Heth.  ’  ’  Thereupon  Re- 
bekah  dries  her  tears  and  goes  away  in  search  of  Jacob. 

When  Jacob  enters  the  chamber  his  father  immediately 
gives  him  his  command:  “  Thou  shalt  not  take  a  wife  of 
the  daughters  of  Canaan.  Arise,  go  to  Padan-aram,  to 
the  house  of  Bethuel  thy  mother’s  father;  and  take  thee 
a  wife  from  thence  of  the  daughters  of  Laban  thy  mother’s 
brother.”  Then  he  voluntarily  and  deliberately  bestows 
upon  Jacob  once  more  the  blessing  already  secured  by 
fraud:  “  God  Almighty  bless  thee,  and  make  thee  fruit¬ 
ful,  and  multiply  thee,  that  thou  mayest  be  a  multitude 
of  people;  and  give  thee  the  blessing  of  Abraham.” 
Thus  blessed,  Jacob  departs  upon  his  eventful  journey. 

The  narrative  before  us  this  morning  suggests  three 
thoughts  which  we  shall  do  well  to  carry  home  and 
remember. 

i.  See,  first,  how  short-sighted  men  and  women  are. 
Isaac  supposed  that  death  was  near.  Esau  said,  “  My 
father  will  die  in  a  few  hours ;  then  I  will  slay  my  brother.  ’  ’ 
But  they  were  mistaken.  Isaac  lived  forty-three  long 
years  more,  and  Esau  never  slew  his  brother.  Rebekah 
thought  Jacob  would  return  to  her  in  a  few  days,  and 
Jacob  imagined  that  when  his  father  died  he  would  take 
his  place  and  be  reunited  to  his  mother;  but  they,  too, 
were  mistaken.  Rebekah  never  saw  Jacob  again,  and 
Jacob’s  absence  was  not  for  a  few  days  only,  but  for 
twenty  years.  How  true  it  is  that  man  proposes  and 


The  Daughters  of  Heth. 


59 


God  disposes !  How  true  is  the  Scripture  saying,  “  Boast 
not  thyself  of  to-morrow;  for  thou  knowest  not  what  a 
day  may  bring  forth.” 

2.  Again,  what  was  it  that  broke  up  that  old  home  and 
embittered  the  life  of  all  its  inmates  ?  Each  one  of  us 
knows  to  his  own  shame  and  sorrow  what  it  was ;  it  was 
what  Amiel,  who  has  so  deeply  impressed  himself  upon 
the  present  generation,  calls  “  an  instinct  of  revolt,  an 
enemy  of  law,  the  savage  within  us,  seditious,  impious, 
insolent,  refractory,  opposed  to  and  contemptuous  of  all 
that  tries  to  rule ;  ”  what  Byron  calls 

“  That  pang,  where  more  than  madness  lies, 

The  worm  that  will  not  sleep  and  never  dies  ;  ” 

what  the  New  Testament  calls  sin;  that  burden  on 
the  soul  which  no  son  or  daughter  of  Adam  ever  wholly 
escapes.  Nor  can  we  escape  the  consequences  of  sin. 
As  the  shadow  follows  the  body  so  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  guilt  follows  sin.  When  you  walk  toward  the 
rising  sun  the  shadow  lurks  behind  you ;  as  the  day 
advances  the  shadow  reaches  your  side;  at  high  noon, 
small,  faint,  but  visible,  it  is  beneath  your  feet;  as  the 
day  hastens  into  the  west,  the  shadow  boldly  goes  before 
lengthening,  darkening.  As  long  as  you  have  a  body 
and  the  light  lasts  the  shadow  goes  with  you.  So  sin 
shadows  the  soul.  Can  we  look  within  ourselves,  steadily, 
honestly,  and  wonder  that  there  should  be  a  Good  Friday 
and  a  Cross  on  Calvary  ?  Beholding  that  Cross,  realizing 
the  need  of  that  Sacrifice,  with  true  faith  in  its  power  to 
make  atonement  for  sin,  shall  we  not  fall  upon  our  knees 
and  cry,  “  O  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  pardon  what  I  have  been, 
sanctify  what  I  am,  and  order  what  I  shall  be,  that  Thine 
may  be  the  glory  and  mine  the  eternal  salvation  ?  ” 


6o 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


3.  The  narrative  before  us  also  recalls  that  blessed  pro¬ 
phecy  contained  in  one  of  our  Holy  Week  Epistles.  Isaiah 
there  speaks  of  the  conflict  between  sin  and  holiness  pre¬ 
figured  in  the  enmity  between  Edom  and  Israel,  and  he 
foresees  its  end.  “  Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom 
with  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah  ?  ”  And  the  Divine 
One  replies,  “  I  that  speak  in  righteousness,  mighty  to 
save,  I  have  trodden  the  wine  press  alone,  and  the  year 
of  My  redeemed  is  come.”  All  that  Esau  or  Edom  sym¬ 
bolized  was  overthrown  on  Calvary.  It  remains  for  us 
only  to  make  that  victory  our  own.  Good  and  evil  will 
not  contend  forever.  The  issue  is  not  uncertain.  The 
struggle  is  not  unending.  On  which  side  are  we  to-day  ? 
Can  we  say,  “  Thanks  be  to  God  which  giveth  us  the 
victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?” 


THE  DREAM. 


MONDAY  AFTER  THE  SECOND  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  And  he  lighted  upon  a  certain  place,  and  tarried  there  all  night,  because 
the  sun  was  set ;  and  he  took  of  the  stones  of  that  place,  and  put  them  for 
his  pillows,  and  lay  down  in  that  place  to  sleep.  And  he  dreamed.” — 
Gen.  xxviii.  ii,  12. 

JACOB’S  sin  has  found  him  out.  He  is  banished  from 
home.  Banishment  is  the  first  fruit  of  his  blessing. 
Nominally  he  is  going  away  to  find  a  wife ;  in  reality,  and 
first  of  all,  he  is  leaving  his  childhood’s  home  to  escape 
his  brother’s  murderous  purpose  of  revenge.  His  heart  is 
heavy  as  he  plods  on  alone  through  unfamiliar  scenes; 
and  he  is  forced  to  acknowledge  to  himself  that  he  is 
suffering  the  due  reward  of  his  deeds.  But,  although  he 
knows  it  not,  God’s  love  is  seeking  him  out  in  his  pun¬ 
ishment  and  preparing  the  providences  through  which  he 
is  to  be  trained  for  a  larger  benediction. 

Jacob’s  journey  led  him  northward  over  tracts  known 
in  later  times  as  the  highlands  of  Judea  and  Samaria  — 
historic  ground  for  the  future.  On  the  second  or  third 
day,  towards  evening,  he  reached  a  certain  hill-top  “  and 
tarried  there  all  night.”  Modern  travellers  give  us  vivid 
descriptions  of  this  rugged  elevation.  As  Jacob  looked 
about  before  composing  himself  to  sleep  he  would  notice 
that  he  was  almost  entirely  surrounded  by  the  rocky 
peaks  which  stood  near  by  like  sentinels  keeping  watch 
upon  the  place.  In  one  direction  only  was  there  an  open¬ 
ing  among  the  heights,  and  through  this  his  eye  would 

61 


62 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


take  in  a  long  stretch  of  open  country  and,  beyond  it,  the 
hills  and  valleys  “  gradually  receding  and  reaching  in  a 
long  succession  to  Mount  Moriah  and  the  hills  which  in 
later  times  stood  round  about  Jerusalem.  ”  Yes,  fourteen 
miles  in  the  distance  he  could  see  Mount  Moriah,  where, 
on  an  altar,  his  father  Isaac  had  once  lain  with  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  knife  gleaming  over  him — a  type  of  that  true  Isaac 
who  in  the  fulness  of  time  should  offer  Himself  upon 
that  same  Mount  Moriah  and  suffer  death  upon  the  Cross 
for  our  redemption;  making  there,  by  His  one  oblation 
of  Himself  once  offered,  a  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient 
sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world.  We  do  not  know  whether  he  recalled  the 
past  or  foresaw  the  future.  Probably  never  before  had 
he  been  so  far  from  the  level  plains  of  Beersheba,  and 
the  grandeur  of  the  strange,  new  panorama  stretching 
before  him  must  have  quickened  and  brought  to  a 
climax  the  serious  and  solemn  thoughts  which  had  ac¬ 
companied  him  on  his  journey.  As  the  darkness  falls 
he  finds  a  stone  for  his  pillow.  Alone,  helpless,  going  he 
knows  not  whither,  his  sin  rises  before  him,  torments 
him,  convicts  him  !  The  blessing  for  which  he  has  sinned, 
what  is  it  ?  Now  that  it  is  his  own,  will  it  bring  him 
comfort  or  protection  ?  With  his  head  on  the  stone  and 
his  eyes  turned  upward  to  the  stars,  in  the  loneliness  and 
silence  of  the  mountains,  we  may  believe  that  his  soul 
lifted  itself  up  to  God  in  repentance  for  the  past  and  in 
faith  for  the  future.  It  must  have  been  so.  The  vision 
of  that  night  was  not  disclosed  to  a  heart  unprepared  for 
the  gracious  revelation. 

At  length  he  slept,  and  in  that  sleep,  he  dreamed  his 
Dream.  He  fell  asleep — 


“A  sleep  full  of  sweet  dreams.” 


The  Dream. 


63 


Dreams  have  a  literature  of  their  own.  In  all  our 
classics  there  are  allusions  to  them.  The  Old  Testament 
contains  the  record  of  many  dreams.  In  this  way  God 
often  spake  to  His  servants  of  old.  Dreams  are  also 
recognized  in  the  New  Testament  as  channels  of  Divine 
communication  to  the  soul.  In  “  a  dream  which  was  not 
all  a  dream  ”  Pontius  Pilate’s  wife  suffered  many  things 
concerning  Jesus. 

And  we  all  dream.  Usually  our  dreams  are  suggested 
or  inspired  by  the  events  of  the  day.  They  seem  a 
faint,  often  a  distorted,  or  broken,  or  weary  repetition 
of  our  waking  thoughts  and  acts.  Hood’s  “  Song  of 
the  Shirt  ”  is  immortal  because  the  common  heart  rec¬ 
ognizes  in  the  poor,  worn-out,  and  hungry  woman  who  fell 
asleep  over  her  task  and  sewed  on  buttons  in  a  dream, 
the  pathetic  interpretation  of  its  own  experience.  So, 
often,  with  all  our  tasks;  in  a  dream  the  driver  speaks 
to  his  horse,  the  mother  cares  for  her  babe,  the  business 
man  buys  and  sells,  the  teacher  gives  instruction,  and  the 
preacher  expounds  and  exhorts.  But  there  are  dreams 
of  another  sort,  wild  and  wicked  dreams,  dreams  not  in¬ 
spired  by  any  waking  act  or  thought.  Have  you  never 
been  shocked  and  horrified  by  your  own  dreams  ?  an¬ 
noyed  that  there  is  within  you,  somewhere,  so  much  that 
is  violent,  impure,  or  dishonorable  ?  Probably,  however, 
we  cannot  sin  in  our  sleep.  “  I  talk  of  dreams,”  says 
Shakespeare,  “  which  are  the  children  of  an  idle  brain, 
begot  of  nothing  but  vain  fantasy.”  Yet  holy  men  have 
taught  that  frightful  dreams  and  restless  sleep  may  be  the 
Spirit’s  warnings  of  sinful  ways  of  life  and  calls  to  repent¬ 
ance.  Does  some  one  say,  “  It  is  indigestion,  and  not  sin, 
that  gives  people  bad  dreams  ?  ”  But  remember  that  J esus 
Christ  came  to  save  your  body  as  well  as  your  soul  ;  that 


64 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


your  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that, 
therefore,  the  self-indulgence,  the  worry,  the  over-work, 
which  causes  broken  sleep,  may  be  as  much  a  sin  as  the 
lie  or  the  hating  heart  that  stings  the  conscience  and 
gives  you  frightful  dreams.  And  so  the  day  that  has 
been  passed  soberly,  temperately,  and  in  the  fear  of  God, 
usually  ends  in  a  night  of  peaceful  sleep  or  beautiful 
dreams,  watched  over  by  the  holy  angels  who  keep  guard 
against  the  hosts  of  evil  thoughts  and  evil  memories. 

While  Jacob  slept  he  dreamed  and  in  that  dream  there 
came  to  him  a  revelation  :  “  And  he  dreamed,  and  behold 
a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth,  and  the  top  of  it  reached  to 
heaven,  and  behold  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  de¬ 
scending  upon  it;”  and  from  the  heavenly  heights  he 
heard  the  voice  of  his  father’s  God  promising  him  pro¬ 
tection  and  guidance,  and  blessings,  both  temporal  and 
spiritual. 

Heretofore  Jacob  has  had  no  personal  knowledge  of 
the  unseen  world  and  there  has  been  no  touch  of  heaven 
upon  his  soul.  Now  he  begins  to  understand  the  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  birthright  and  the  blessing;  now  he  learns  that 
the  other  world  is  as  real  as  this  one  and  that  there  is  a 
way  from  earth  to  heaven  and  from  heaven  to  earth. 
From  this  night  forward  Jacob  is  a  believer.  The  Vision 
of  the  Ladder  was  the  turning-point  in  his  spiritual  his¬ 
tory.  He  rises  up  a  changed  man. 

In  studying  the  life  of  Jacob  our  chief  purpose  is  to 
trace  the  steps  by  which  a  human  soul  possessing  the 
strongest  inborn  love  of  self,  with  the  intellectual  strength 
to  bend  other  wills  to  its  will,  and  to  form  long  purposes 
of  personal  advancement,  and  to  adhere  to  them,  under 
the  discipline  of  a  loving  Heavenly  Father,  develops 
nobler  aims,  a  sensitiveness  of  conscience,  a  habit  of 


The  Dream. 


^5 


fervent  prayer,  an  intelligent  faith,  and  a  readiness  to 
submit  that  masterful  will  to  the  will  of  God.  We  are 
trying  to  see  how  it  was  that  the  Heel-catcher  became 
Israel,  the  Prince  of  God.  The  narrative  before  us  shows 
when  the  change  began. 

To-day  let  us  confine  our  attention  to  one  feature  of 
Jacob’s  conversion;  I  mean  the  fact  that  he  was  alone 
when  God  spake  to  his  soul.  Each  human  soul  comes 
into  the  world  alone  and  leaves  it  alone.  While  it  lives 
here  it  dwells  in  solitude.  Nothing  is  stranger  or  more 
solemn  than  the  loneliness  of  the  soul.  We  are  told 
that  there  are  layers  of  air  between  the  atoms  of  the 
most  closely  compacted  bodies.  Each  soul  is  such  an 
atom,  distinct,  separate;  or  better  still,  we  are  islands 
all  in  an  unbounded  sea.  The  infant  has  never  thought 
“  this  is  I,”  but  in  a  few  years  he  learns  the  use  of  “  I  ” 
and  “  me,”  and  finds  “  I  am  not  what  I  see;  and  other 
than  the  things  I  touch;  ”  and  one  day,  as  the  seasons 
pass,  “  his  isolation  grows  defined.”  When  that  solitude 
of  the  soul  is  felt,  God  speaks.  With  more  or  less  dis¬ 
tinctness  each  Christian  recalls  the  day  or  days  when  for 
the  first  time  the  soul  became  conscious  of  its  isolation, 
and,  in  that  conscious  solitude,  heard  the  Voice  Divine. 
Jacob’s  separation  from  human  companionship  was, 
therefore,  providential.  And  so  God  in  mercy  arranges 
solitudes  for  us.  We  are  shut  up  in  a  sick  room,  we  are 
called  upon  a  journey,  the  companions  almost  always  with 
us  are  separated  from  us  by  the  changes  and  chances  of 
life  and  death.  Then,  when  we  are  alone,  the  thought 
of  personality  flashes  upon  us  and  God  speaks.  Is  it  not 
so  ?  When  you  made  the  great  choice  between  God  and 
self  you  were  alone  with  your  Saviour.  Each  succeeding 
forward  movement  in  the  life  of  grace  also  dates  from  a 


66 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


season  of  private  prayer.  Let  us,  then,  not  shrink  from 
that  solitude,  but  rather  seek  and  love  it.  The  New 
Testament  saying,  “  Many  were  coming  and  going  and 
there  was  no  leisure,”  is  an  alarmingly  accurate  descrip¬ 
tion  of  the  life  of  our  own  day.  Let  us  make  the  most 
of  the  Church’s  seasons  of  retirement,  and  frequently  se¬ 
cure  some  hour  in  which  we  can  be  alone  on  the  mountain- 
top  to  behold  the  Vision  of  the  Ladder  that  joins  earth 
to  heaven. 


THE  LADDER. 


TUESDAY  AFTER  THE  SECOND  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  And  he  dreamed,  and  behold  a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth,  and  the  top 
of  it  reached  to  heaven  :  and  behold  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  de¬ 
scending  on  it.  And,  behold,  the  Lord  stood  above  it.” — Gen.  xxviii.  12,  13. 

THE  Vision  of  the  Ladder  brought  with  it  a  conviction 
which  never  departed  from  Jacob’s  soul.  We 
know,  too,  that  it  fastened  itself  upon  the  memory  and 
imagination  of  his  descendants.  No  Jew  ever  forgot, 
ever  will  forget,  that  his  great  ancestor  saw  heaven  and 
earth  joined  together.  And  Christians  from  childhood 
have  loved  and  meditated  upon  that  vision. 

In  speaking  of  the  ladder  our  text  first  tells  us  when 
the  vision  came  to  Jacob,  when  he  was  asleep  and  in 
dreams,  and  continues  the  narrative  in  three  descriptive 
clauses,  each  of  which  begins  with  the  word  “  behold.” 
These  natural  divisions  we  will  follow  to-day. 

1.  “  And  he  dreamed,  and  behold.”  Notice  the  sig¬ 
nificance  of  this  statement.  The  narrative  is  entirely  free 

«/ 

from  anything  which  might  awaken  suspicion  as  to  its 
veracity.  It  is  not  said  that  Jacob  saw  the  ladder  in 
broad  daylight,  or  that  he  really  looked  upon  it  at  all. 
We  are  told  that  it  was  a  dream.  The  story  of  Jacob’s 
life  runs  along  almost  without  exception  in  the  same 
natural  way.  To  be  sure,  the  great  facts,  the  great 
mysteries  of  mortal  life  are  never  concealed ;  the  folly, 
the  pathos,  the  adventure,  the  tragedy  of  his  career  are 
freely  and  frankly  set  before  us;  the  miraculous  element, 


67 


68 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


however,  is  almost  entirely  wanting.  There  is  nothing 
improbable  in  the  whole  story,  nothing  which  faith  or  rea¬ 
son  need  question.  Yet  how  often  do  we  hear  it  said  that 
the  Old  Testament  is  a  mass  of  myths  and  marvels,  that 
its  strange  and  impossible  and  unbelievable  miracles,  the 
record  of  which  almost  entirely  fills  its  pages,  nullify 
themselves,  and  that,  consequently,  these  ancient  writings 
are  obsolete  as  sources  of  legitimate  ethical  and  spiritual 
instruction!  The  present  sad  neglect  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  is  probably  due,  in  a  large  measure,  to  some  such 
miserable  mistakes.  True,  it  is  an  old  book,  dealing  with 
the  childhood  of  the  race,  relating  the  beginnings  of 
God’s  revelation  of  His  will  and  character,  requiring  the 
light  of  the  New  Testament  for  its  interpretation;  but  all 
this  does  not  warrant  its  neglect  or  misrepresentation. 
If  it  has  its  miracles,  its  obscurities,  its  difficulties,  so  has 
the  New  Testament;  and  the  Church  from  which  we  re¬ 
ceive  the  sacraments  of  Christ  binds  both  Testaments 
together  as  the  Word  of  God.  In  any  case  it  will  be  safe 
to  assume  that  no  doubting  criticism  can  object  to  the 
statement  of  the  text  that  Jacob  saw  his  ladder  in  a 
dream.  We  may  even  admit  that  the  framework  of  his 
dream  was  suggested  by  the  blocks  of  sandstone  on  the 
slopes  of  the  hills  where  his  eyes  rested  before  he  slept ; 
that  “  his  surroundings  wove  themselves  ”  into  the  fabric 
of  his  dreams  and  that  the  slabs  of  stone  on  the  sloping 
ascents  of  the  hills  “  built  themselves  up  into  a  gigantic 
staircase,  reaching  from  the  spot  where  he  lay  to  the 
starry  depths  above  him.”  It  may  have  been  so.  At 
least  all  was  natural  as  well  as  supernatural.  But  in  that 
dream  God  spake  to  Jacob’s  soul. 

2.  “  And  behold,  a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth,  and  the 
top  of  it  reached  to  heaven.”  In  Jacob’s  ladder  we  have 


The  Ladder. 


69 


the  first  clear  intimation  of  the  world  to  come.  It  was  a 
revelation  of  the  fact  of  a  future  life.  He  saw  an  open 
heaven  and  a  way  of  ascent  to  that  blessed  abode. 
Henceforth  Jacob  knew  that  death  does  not  end  all. 
The  vision  also  showed  him  that  reconciliation  is  possible 
between  God  and  sinful  man.  The  gulf  his  sin  had 
placed  between  himself  and  his  God  could  be  bridged 
over. 

The  many  rounds  or  steps,  one  above  another,  in  the 
long  ascent  would  teach  him  that  the  upward  way  is  toil¬ 
some  and  trying — that  “  heaven  is  not  gained  at  a  single 
bound.”  Furthermore,  the  vision  of  earth  joined  to 
heaven  could  not  fail  to  keep  ever  before  him  through 
the  years  to  come  high  and  pure  ideals  of  a  daily  life 
that  “  slopes  through  darkness  up  to  God.” 

3.  “  And  behold,  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  de¬ 
scending  upon  it.”  It  is  easy  to  believe  in  the  angelic 
world  of  which  the  Bible  speaks.  The  seraphim  and  the 
cherubim  and  their  radiant  companions  are  a  glorious 
creation  readily  pictured  by  the  imagination  and  gladly 
welcomed  by  faith.  It  would  be  abnormal  and  contrary 
to  all  the  laws  of  creation  were  the  great  spiritual  space 
between  God  and  man  left  tenantless  and  unbroken.  In 
ordered  and  ever-ascending  ranks  of  beauty,  holiness,  and 
power  they  rise  from  humanity  to  the  Source  of  all  crea¬ 
tion  ;  their  nature  and  their  loving  occupation  making 
them  objects  of  the  reverent  admiration  of  every  in¬ 
structed  and  faithful  Christian  heart.  An  Apostle  tells 
us  that  they  are  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  to  minister 
unto  the  heirs  of  salvation ;  and  our  Lord  said  that  the 
angels  of  His  little  ones  do  always  behold  the  face  of  the 
Father  in  heaven.  Accordingly  in  every  age  the  Church 
has  encouraged  her  children  to  believe  in  guardian  angels 


70 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


who  are  set  apart  for  each  of  the  baptized,  to  lift  upwards 
our  confessions  and  our  prayers,  to  bring  back  our  par¬ 
dons  and  our  blessings,  guiding,  guarding,  encouraging 
us  on  earth,  and  at  last  bearing  away  the  soul  to  God 
who  gave  it.  “  He  shall  give  His  angels  charge  over 
thee  to  keep  thee  in  all  thy  ways.”  The  Collect  for  the 
Feast  of  St.  Michael  and  All  Angels  dwells  especially 
upon  the  thought  that  the  angels  are  the  ministers  of 
the  providence  of  God  in  the  government  of  this  world, 
and  that,  in  answer  to  our  prayers,  they  succor  and  de¬ 
fend  us  on  earth  even  as  they  always  do  God  service  in 
heaven.  Jacob  in  his  loneliness  and  banishment  and 
misery  would  recognize  in  the  angel  host  an  assurance  of 
the  providential  care  of  the  Lord  his  God. 

4.  “  And,  behold,  the  Lord  stood  above  ”  the  ladder. 
While  no  man  with  his  bodily  eyes  has  seen  God  at  any 
time,  in  his  dream  Jacob  saw  Him,  saw  Him  above  the 
ladder  in  an  attitude  of  forgiveness  and  benediction. 
Thus  the  vision  in  full  taught  Jacob,  first  of  all,  that  there 
was  a  Providence  which  would  keep  him  in  all  his  ways. 
That  is  the  very  first  step  in  religion.  To  believe  in  One 
greater  and  higher  than  we,  One  who  has  the  power  and 
the  will  to  save,  to  whom  it  may  be  said,  Take  me,  for 
I  am  travel-stained  and  tired — that  is  the  beginning  and 
the  ending  also  of  all  spiritual  attainment.  Jacob  applied 
to  himself  the  vision;  it  was  for  him;  and  from  above  he 
seemed  to  hear  a  voice  pledging  and  promising  him  all 
blessedness  which  the  dream  ladder  pictured  out  of  the 
heavenly  providence  and  the  heavenly  love. 

If  we,  too,  have  learned  the  lesson  of  faith  in  Providence 
blessed  are  we,  for  to-day,  as  of  old,  it  distinguishes  the 
carnal  from  the  spiritual,  the  believer  from  the  unbeliever. 
That  loving  Providence  makes  all  things  work  together 


The  Ladder. 


7 1 


for  good  for  all  who  love  God.  Oftentimes  it  does  not 
seem  so,  and  then  we  are  tempted  to  murmur,  tempted 
to  take  the  familiar  lines,  “  There  is  a  Providence  that 
shapes  our  ends,  rough  hew  them  how  we  will,”  and, 
with  the  schoolboy,  read  over  the  punctuation  mark,  thus 
turning  truth  into  falsehood,  ”  There  is  a  Providence 
that  shapes  our  ends  rough ,  hew  them  how  we  will.” 
But  God  is  our  father  and  we  are  His  children.  He  will 
take  care  of  us.  He  provideth  for  all  meat  in  due  season. 
We  are  His  jewels.  We  are  as  the  apple  of  His  eye. 

5.  There  is  something  more.  Jacob's  ladder  has  a 
deeper  meaning.  Whether  that  deeper  meaning  was  re¬ 
vealed  to  him  in  full  or  in  part  we  know  not;  later  on, 
however,  devout  Jews  understood  that  the  ladder  was  a 
type  of  the  Messiah ;  and  at  length,  in  his  conversation 
with  Nathanael,  the  guileless  man,  as  it  is  recorded  in  the 
closing  verses  of  the  first  chapter  of  St.  John’s  Gospel, 
our  Lord  Himself  interpreted  the  ladder  as  prefiguring 
the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God.  Christ  is  the  true 
ladder  that  joins  earth  to  heaven.  By  His  two  natures 
in  One  Person  He  is  God  and  man  —  a  ladder  resting  on 
earth  and  reaching  heaven.  In  the  opening  of  St.  John’s 
Gospel  we  have  the  inspired  definition  of  the  Incarnation, 
The  Word  was  made  Flesh  and  dwelt  among  us;” 
while  St.  Paul  declares  that  like  a  ladder  He  bridges  over 
the  separation  between  earth  and  heaven,  for  there  is 
“  One  mediator  between  God  and  men,  the  man  Christ 

Jy  y 

esus. 

All,  then,  that  Jacob’s  ladder  meant  for  him  it  means 
for  us.  There  is  a  heaven  and  its  gates  are  open  ;  angels 
come  and  go  from  earth  to  that  heaven  ;  there  is  a  Father 
above  who  cares  for  us;  and  under  His  providential  care 
we  are  safe ;  Christ  is  the  one  Mediator  between  men  and 


72 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


God.  This  old  symbol  of  Christ  shows  Him  to  be  per¬ 
fect  man  and  perfect  God.  Because  He  is  man  He  is  our 
brother  and  He  can  feel  for  us  and  we  can  follow  His  ex¬ 
ample  ;  because  He  is  God  the  Cross  is  an  Atonement, 
and  the  open  grave  an  Easter;  and  so  an  Apostle  can  say, 
“To  you  which  believe  He  is  precious." 


THE  PROMISE. 


WEDNESDAY  AFTER  THE  SECOND  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  I  am  the  Lord  God  of  Abraham  thy  father,  and  the  God  of  Isaac  :  the 
land  whereon  thou  best,  to  thee  will  I  give  it,  and  to  thy  seed,  .  .  .  And 
in  thee  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed.  And, 
behold,  I  am  with  thee,  and  will  keep  thee  in  all  places  whither  thou  goest, 
and  will  bring  thee  again  into  this  land  ;  for  I  will  not  leave  thee.” — Gen. 
xxviii.  13,  14,  15. 

IN  his  dream  Jacob  saw  the  Lord,  or,  according  to  an¬ 
other  reading,  the  Glory  of  the  Lord,  revealed  above 
the  ladder.  Then  from  the  heavenly  heights  there  fell 
upon  his  listening  ear  the  gracious  message  from  which 
the  text  is  taken ;  a  promise  shaping  all  the  after  life  of 
the  listener,  the  Great  Promise  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
of  the  Jewish  Covenant. 

It  was  a  four-fold  promise. 

1.  In  the  first  place  it  assured  Jacob  that  he  was  the 
recognized  heir  of  the  birthright  blessing.  “  I  am  the 
Lord  God  of  Abraham  thy  father,  and  the  God  of  Isaac/’ 
Hereafter  the  Covenant  God  will  be  known  as  the  God 
of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob, 
the  same  Jehovah  who  is  called  in  the  New  Testament 
the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom 
all  the  promises  are  yea  and  amen. 

2.  Again,  he  was  promised  a  land,  “  the  land  whereon 
thou  liest,  to  thee  will  I  give  it,  and  to  thy  seed.”  And 
we  know  that  this  land  did  become  the  possession  of  the 
chosen  family  and  of  the  chosen  people,  the  Holy  Land  of 
the  past  and  of  the  present,  a  picturesque  and  significant 


73 


74  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

type  of  the  Promised  Land  beyond  the  grave  and  gate  of 
death. 

3.  “  And,”  continued  the  promise,  “  in  thee  and  in 
thy  seed  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed.” 
This  is  the  Great  Promise.  The  Promised  One  is  here 
foretold.  The  Messiah  shall  be  Jacob’s  son. 

4.  This  clears  the  way  for  a  somewhat  fuller  examina¬ 
tion  of  the  final  promise  of  the  text.  In  the  plainest 
words  a  personal  promise  is  now  bestowed  upon  Jacob. 
”  And,  behold,  I  am  with  thee,  and  will  keep  thee  in  all 
places  whither  thou  goest,  and  will  bring  thee  again  into 
this  land ;  for  I  will  not  leave  thee.  ’  ’  When  J acob  reached 
the  hill-top  whereon  he  should  sleep,  banished  from 
home,  in  his  loneliness,  and  fear,  and  sin,  he  may  have 
felt  that  he  was  forsaken  of  God  and  man.  He  knew 
not  his  future  and  there  seemed  no  present  help  in  time 
of  trouble.  The  thought  of  another  despairing  heart 
may  have  been  his  own, 


“  I  am  as  a  reed 

Flung  from  the  rock  on  ocean’s  foam  to  sail 

Where’er  the  surge  may  sweep,  the  tempest’s  breath  prevail.” 


Now,  however,  with  this  blessed  promise  his  own,  all  was 
changed.  Despair  gave  way  to  confidence  and  courage. 

I  am  with  thee;  I  will  keep  thee;  I  will  not  leave 
thee.”  Was  this  word  of  the  Lord  made  good  ?  Jacob 
himself  bears  witness  to  the  faithfulness  of  the  promises. 
Twenty  years  afterwards  he  says,  ”  The  God  of  my 
fathers  hath  kept  me.”  ”  That  testimony,”  says  an 
eminent  modern  preacher,  ”  I  have  read  with  great  joy.” 
Later  on  Jacob  declares,  ”  I  will  make  an  altar  unto  God 
who  answered  me  in  the  day  of  my  distress  and  was  with 
me  in  the  way  where  I  went.”  When,  on  his  dying  bed, 


The  Promise. 


75 


he  blessed  the  two  sons  of  Joseph  the  same  testimony 
was  repeated,  “  The  God  which  fed  me  all  my  life  long, 
the  Angel  which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless  the 
lads.  ” 

This  personal  promise  made  to  Jacob  the  Scriptures 
warrant  us  in  applying  to  ourselves.  The  same  promise 
was  afterwards  made  to  Joshua,  to  Solomon,  to  all  Israel ; 
in  the  book  of  Isaiah  it  is  repeated  to  the  poor  and 
needy;  while  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  the  Apostle  takes  up  the  words,  “  I  will  never 
leave  thee  nor  forsake  thee,”  and  gives  them  in  all  their 
fulness  of  comfort  and  hope  to  every  troubled  Christian 
heart.  Everywhere  in  the  Word  of  God  the  promises  are 
emphasized  and  repeated.  Under  a  thousand  vivid 
images  and  in  the  plainest  words  we  are  assured  over  and 
over  again  that  the  Lord  is  faithful.  The  remarkable 
emphasis  placed  upon  the  promises  of  Holy  Scripture  is 
an  evidence  that  they  are  in  danger  of  being  neglected ; 
accordingly  we  find  it  to  be  a  fact  that  the  human  heart  is 
naturally  distrustful  of  the  promises  of  God.  Neverthe¬ 
less,  Revelation  assures  us  that  the  promises  are  founded 
upon  the  attributes  of  God.  His  promises  are  made 
voluntarily.  Can  He  ever  be  reluctant  to  fulfil  them  ? 
They  were  not  given  hastily  or  unadvisedly.  No  new 
circumstances  can  arise  which  are  unforeseen,  or  which 
could  on  any  account  lead  Him  to  wish  to  repeal  them  or 
to  see  that  they  should  be  repealed.  He  cannot  be 
powerless  to  keep  His  word,  for  He  is  omnipotent.  He 
can  never  promise  beyond  the  limits  of  His  power,  be¬ 
yond  the  scope  of  the  laws  by  which  His  providence  is 
governed,  for  He  knows  all  and  He  cannot  forget.  The 
Lord  must  be  faithful;  and  He  is.  He  cannot  deny 
Himself.  He  is  not  a  man  that  He  should  lie,  nor  the 


7  6 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


son  of  man  that  He  should  repent.  His  goodness  faileth 
never;  and  Christian  experience  in  every  age  and  race 
and  clime  corroborates  our  faith.  Every  day  it  is  put  to 
the  test  that  God  is  a  prayer-hearing  and  a  promise-keep¬ 
ing  God.  Multitudes  of  living  men  and  women,  some, 
if  not  all  of  us  here  this  day,  can  testify  that  the  Lord  is 
faithful.  All  such  believe  in  what  are  called  special 
providences;  but  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  promises  of 
the  text  are  equally  fulfilled  in  the  uneventful  days. 
The  young  are  usually  eager  for  something  to  happen. 
As  we  advance  in  life,  however,  we  gain  the  clearest  and 
sweetest  evidence  of  promises  kept  in  the  season  when 
nothing  happens.  To  awake  after  refreshing  sleep  and  to 
see  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  to  remember  that  all  be¬ 
neath  our  roof  are  well  and  happy,  the  children  safe  and 
in  their  places,  no  sickness,  no  harrowing  cares,  no  sepa¬ 
rating  ways,  no  crisis,  no  special  anxiety  for  us  or  any  of 
our  own — on  such  mornings  we  should  most  devoutly 
acknowledge  the  blessed  fulfilment  of  the  old  promise, 

I  will  keep  thee;  I  will  be  with  thee;  I  will  not  leave 
thee,”  and  exclaim,  with  all  thankfulness  and  sincerity, 

“  Oh,  blest  are  uneventful  days  ;  and  blest  are  uneventful  years  !  ” 

But  it  will  be  strange  if  some  of  us  are  not  now  meeting 
the  eventful  days.  For  those  days  will  come.  Some¬ 
times  the  believer’s  faith  never  wavers,  carrying  him 
safely  through  the  period  of  changes  and  chances;  most 
of  us  though,  as  we  must  admit,  are  besieged  by  doubts 
when  the  trial  comes  upon  us  and  are  prone  to  distrust 
the  promise  of  God.  Either  our  sins  create  the  doubt, 
or  to  try  us  God  hides  His  face,  or  else  we  fully  realize 
the  strength  of  our  carnal  nature  only  when  it  rebels 
against  the  heavenly  discipline  —  from  one  or  all  of  these 


The  Promise. 


77 


causes  distrust  seizes  upon  us ;  we  doubt  whether  we  have 
ever  truly  given  our  hearts  to  God.  Gustav  Flaubert, 
assigned  by  the  literary  critics  a  foremost  place  among 
the  great  modern  masters  of  style,  once  said  of  himself, 
at  the  summit  of  his  power,  “  I  am  growing  so  peevish 
about  my  writing,  I  am  like  a  man  whose  ear  is  true  but 
who  plays  falsely  upon  the  violin, — his  fingers  refuse  to 
reproduce  precisely  those  sounds  of  which  he  has  the 
inward  sense.  Then  the  tears  come  rolling  down  from 
the  poor  scraper’s  eyes  and  the  bow  falls  from  his  hand.” 
Where  is  the  Christian  who  has  not  sometimes  felt  a  sim¬ 
ilar  despair  ?  The  great  gap  between  the  real  and  the 
ideal,  both  in  faith  and  practice,  tempts  us  to  question 
our  natural  and  sacramental  endowment,  even  as  the 
writer  who  cannot  express  his  thought  doubts  his 
thought,  or  as  the  musician  who  cannot  reproduce  the 
sweet  sounds  within  him  doubts  that  inward  sense  and 
weeps  over  his  doubt;  just  so  the  Christian  who  cannot 
live  the  life  of  Christ  in  bearing  the  Cross  of  Christ  is 
sometimes  tempted  to  doubt  himself  as  well  as  the  God 
above  him.  But  Flaubert  never  gave  up,  and  won  suc¬ 
cess.  And  the  Christian  who  holds  fast  to  the  promises 
in  the  day  of  darkness  will  see  them  fulfilled  in  the  light. 
For  the  Lord  is  faithful.  He  will  not  suffer  us  to  be 
tempted  above  that  we  are  able ;  neither  should  we  for¬ 
get  that  the  goodness  and  faithfulness  of  God  in  keeping 
His  word  is,  as  Bishop  Butler  has  most  profoundly  ob¬ 
served,  “  a  truth  full  of  terror  for  the  wicked.  Malice,” 
he  says,  “  may  be  wearied  or  satiated.  Caprice  may 
change;  but  goodness  is  a  steady,  inflexible  principle  of 
action.” 

“  I  am  with  thee;  I  will  keep  thee;  I  will  not  leave 
thee.”  This  was  the  promise  which  caused  the  desert  of 


78 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


Jacob’s  hopelessness  to  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose. 
Let  us  make  that  promise  our  own.  He  who  hath  begun 
a  good  work  in  you  will  perform  it  until  the  day  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Believing  that,  and  looking  unto  Jesus  the 
author  and  finisher  of  our  faith,  knowing  that  He  is 
faithful  who  has  promised,  we  will  fight  the  good  fight, 
thankful  for  every  promise  fulfilled  in  the  past,  hopeful 
in  present  discouragements,  brave  and  cheerful  under 
temporary  defeat,  staying  ourselves  for  every  experience 
of  life,  death,  and  that  vast  forever,  on  the  sweet  assur¬ 
ance  which  evermore  comes  down  the  ladder  of  Divine 
love:  “  I  am  with  thee;  I  will  keep  thee;  I  will  not 
leave  thee.” 


THE  AWAKENING. 


THURSDAY  AFTER  THE  SECOND  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  And  Jacob  awaked  out  of  his  sleep,  and  he  said,  Surely  the  Lord  is  in 
this  place  ;  and  I  knew  it  not.  And  he  was  afraid,  and  said,  How  dread¬ 
ful  is  this  place  !  this  is  none  other  but  the  house  of  God,  and  this  is  the 
gate  of  heaven.” — Gen.  xxviii.  16,  17. 

DREAMS,”  says  Charles  Dickens,  **  are  the  bright 
creatures  of  poem  and  legend,  who  sport  on  earth 
in  the  night  season,  and  melt  away  in  the  first  beam  of 
the  sun,  which  lights  grim  care  and  stern  reality  on  their 
daily  pilgrimage  through  the  world.”  But  Jacob’s  dream 
did  not  fade  away.  When  he  awoke  the  hard,  cold  light 
of  early  morning  was  uncovering  the  distant  heights,  the 
rock-strewn  fields,  and  the  wild  brier  of  the  wilderness ; 
faded  was  the  heavenly  stairway,  and  faded  the  ascend¬ 
ing  and  descending  host,  and  faded  the  vision  and  the 
voice  of  God ;  but  the  memory  of  it,  the  touch  Divine 
upon  his  soul  remained.  His  first  feeling  is  one  of  holy 
fear.  “  How  dreadful  is  this  place!  The  Lord  is  in  this 
place  and  I  knew  it  not.”  There  is  nothing  in  these 
words  to  warrant  the  conjecture  that  hitherto  Jacob  had 
thought  of  God  as  a  local  deity,  confined  to  his  father’s 
habitation,  and  that  his  exclamation  is  an  utterance  of 
astonishment  at  the  discovery  that  God  was  here  and 
might  be  found  anywhere.  Jacob  always  knew  that  God 
was  omnipresent.  His  words  mean  simply  that  that  feel¬ 
ing  was  strong  upon  him  which  humanity  has  ever  felt 
when  it  is  brought  near  to  the  Creator  and  to  the  world  un- 


79 


8o 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


seen.  The  creature,  since  Adam’s  sin,  and  because  of  it, 
instinctively  hides  itself,  as  Adam  did,  from  the  approach 
of  the  Creator.  And  so  the  hill-top  upon  which  he  had 
slept  seemed  holy  ground  and  a  hushed  awe  fell  upon 
Jacob.  The  reverence  and  godly  fear  of  which  the 
Apostle  speaks  filled  his  heart. 

To-day,  therefore,  reverence  shall  be  our  theme.  It 
will  scarcely  be  denied  that  this  is  an  irreverent  age,  or 
that  we  are  an  irreverent  people.  The  subject  may  be 
an  unwelcome  one,  but  it  is  timely,  and  the  duty  of 
preaching  upon  it  is  imperative. 

Now,  what  is  reverence  ?  In  the  text  we  see  a  fellow- 
man  in  a  reverential  mood,  a  sight  better  than  the  defini¬ 
tions  which  are  not  altogether  satisfactory.  We  are  told 
that  reverence  is  a  word  by  itself  and  that  it  has  no  syn¬ 
onym.  It  is  not  respect  or  fear  or  honor;  awe  is  the 
nearest  word ;  and  yet  it  is  more  than  awe.  Dean 
Vaughan  has  well  said,  “  We  feel  reverence  only  for  the 
sacred — for  that  which  is,  or  has  touched,  the  Divine.” 
Now  the  feeling  to  which  Jacob  gave  expression  on 
awakening  will  have,  of  course,  its  ebbs  and  flows.  No 
attitude  of  the  mind  or  heart  is  free  from  this  law  of 
change.  But  if  we  truly  and  rightly  believe  in  God  we 
must  maintain  a  real  reverence  towards  Him.  If  there 
is  One  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  are;  to  whom 
our  hearts,  our  minds,  and  our  consciences  are  an  open 
book;  upon  whom  we  are  absolutely  dependent  for  all 
we  have  and  love  and  hope  for;  who  made  us  and  not 
we  ourselves  —  what  innermost  thought  can  we  have  of 
Him  save  this:  Holy  and  Reverend  is  His  name!  Any 
serious  consideration  of  the  person  and  attributes  of 
God,  as  revealed  by  Christianity,  must  force  from  us  the 
prayer,  “Hallowed  be  Thy  name.”  Nevertheless,  as  we 


The  Awakening. 


8 1 


look  about  us,  we  find  that  it  is  not  so.  Irreverence 
toward  God  may  be  charged  against  three  classes  of 
people. 

There  are  those  who  openly  scorn  to  pay  Him  rever¬ 
ence;  who  never  bow  the  knee  to  Him,  nor  honor  His 
holy  name  or  His  Word;  who  daily,  even  hourly,  blas¬ 
pheme  Him,  in  heedlessness  or  in  anger;  who,  when 
reminded  of  the  pledge,  “  I  will  not  hold  him  guiltless 
that  taketh  My  name  in  vain,”  deny  His  power  to  reach 
them,  or  rashly  proclaim  their  willingness  to  take  the 
consequences — men  who  thus  write  themselves  down  in 
the  lists  of  those  “  Who  ne’er  have  tasted  grace,  nor 
goodness  ever  felt.” 

And  many  sin  in  this  way  who  nevertheless  profess  and 
call  themselves  Christians.  I  do  not  refer  to  those  who 
look  upon  our  Lord  merely  as  a  great  human  teacher; 
or  who,  in  other  respects,  are  in  error  as  to  the  nature 
and  person  of  God.  No  doubt  such  are  failing  to  give 
the  homage  which  is  due  to  Him.  I  speak,  rather,  of 
those  about  us  who  belong  to  what  are  known  as  the 
orthodox  denominations.  They  are  good  people;  they 
mean  no  harm  ;  but  they  are  so  rude  and  free  and  familiar 
in  their  religion  that  it  is  impossible  to  approve  of  their 
ways.  In  order  to  escape  even  the  suspicion  of  unfair¬ 
ness  I  will  give  the  words  of  one  of  their  own  ministers. 
He  had  lived  abroad  for  eight  years,  and  upon  his  return 
published  an  article  ( Homiletical  Review ,  Dec.,  1888, 
page  546),  from  which  the  following  sentences  are  taken : 

A  positively  painful  impression,  upon  coming  home  to 

America,  was  made  by  the  lack  of  reverence  during 

divine  service.  The  behavior  of  the  congregation,  the 

bearing  of  the  preacher,  the  sermon,  the  announcements, 

too  often  put  divine  services  on  the  level  of  an  entertain- 
6 


82 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


ment.  Sometimes  the  entertaining  feature  is  not  only 
apparent,  but  actually  announced  as  a  special  aim.  As 
a  consequence,  the  levity  found  in  certain  congregations 
ought  not  perhaps  to  be  a  surprise,  however  shocking  it 
may  be.  When  a  minister  descends  to  the  sensational, 
the  vulgar,  the  laughable,  as  the  chief  means  of  attract¬ 
ing  an  audience,  we  naturally  wonder  why  he  is  in  the 
pulpit.  With  such  preaching  astonishment  ceases  that 
the  congregation  lacks  solemnity,  is  ready  for  a  laugh, 
and  can  enter  and  leave  the  house  of  God  without  a 
thought  or  an  act  of  worship.”  To  this  we  may  add 
that  irreverence  towards  God  is  more  than  a  question  of 
taste,  is  more  than  bad  manners;  it  is,  wherever  it  is 
manifested  by  Christians,  a  serious  hindrance  to  the 
progress  of  religion  and  a  sin  against  the  holiness  of  the 
Almighty. 

Once  more,  we  may  treat  God  with  irreverence  by 
banishing  Him  from  our  thoughts,  by  neglecting  to  pray 
to  Him,  by  rebelling  against  His  will. 

Take  another  thought.  Our  churches  are  holy.  We 
should  demean  ourselves  with  reverence  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord.  Jacob  turned  his  hill-top  into  a  sanctuary  and 
said,  “  This  is  none  other  but  the  house  of  God.”  Our 
blessed  Saviour  rebuked  irreverence  in  the  temple  and 
He  loved  its  courts.  To  teach  us  reverence  our  churches 
are  designed  to  be  and  to  seem  unlike  other  structures. 
When  we  enter  them  we  are  in  the  shrine  of  an  un¬ 
seen  presence,  a  meeting  place  between  God  and  man. 
And  the  worship  of  our  sanctuaries  is  profoundly  rever¬ 
ent.  No  failure  in  this  respect  can  be  charged  against 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Of  those  outside  our 
privileges  it  may  be  said  that  they  do  not  know  how  to 
behave  themselves  when  assembled  for  public  worship, 


The  Awakening.  83 

but  for  Church  people  there  is  no  such  excuse.  If  we 
are  not  all  on  our  knees,  soberly  and  devoutly  and 
audibly  participating  in  the  prayers,  in  each  and  every 
act  and  order  of  our  worship,  taking  our  part,  endeavor¬ 
ing  to  banish  all  worldly  thoughts,  we  are  sinning  against 
light  and  love,  calling  down  upon  ourselves  a  curse  and 
not  a  blessing.  Neither  must  we  forget  the  power  of 
example.  The  young,  and  all  others,  in  fact,  learn 
reverence  by  example  rather  than  by  precept.  The  de¬ 
vout  example  of  one  good  man  or  woman  is  worth  many 
sermons  upon  this  duty.  And  with  reverence  for  the 
house  of  God  we  shall  grow  to  love  His  dwelling-place 
and  its  worship  and  be  able  to  say  with  the  Psalmist, 
“  Lord,  I  have  loved  the  habitation  of  Thy  house  and 
the  place  where  Thine  honor  dwelleth.’’ 

We  must  also  notice  that  Holy  Scripture  couples  to¬ 
gether  reverence  for  the  Lord’s  house  and  the  Lord’s  Day. 
“Ye  shall  keep  My  sabbaths  and  reverence  My  sanctu¬ 
ary;  I  am  the  Lord.’’  Here  again,  example  is  powerful. 
And  so  reverence,  like  the  other  religious  sentiments, 
while  it  begins  with  God,  descends  to  all  the  relations  of 
life.  Accordingly  we  are  told,  “Ye  shall  fear  every  man 
his  father  and  his  mother;  ’’  and  again,  “  Thou  shalt  rise 
up  before  the  hoary  head,  and  honor  the  face  of  the  old 
man  and  fear  thy  God.”  The  wife,  too,  is  taught  to 
reverence  her  husband  and  the  husband  to  love  his  wife. 
Says  Ruskin :  “  Reverence  is  due  to  what  is  pure  and 
bright  in  your  own  youth;  to  what  is  true  and  tried  in 
the  age  of  others ;  to  all  that  is  gracious  among  the  living, 
great  among  the  dead,  and  marvellous  in  the  powers  that 
can  never  die.’’  If  reverence  in  these  respects  dies  out 
we  shall  be  far  on  the  road  to  materialism.  And  so  the 
“great  moral  poet”  sets  forth  reverence  as  the  “angel 


84 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


of  the  world/’  If  we  believe  all  this,  if  we  realize  that 
irreverence  is  in  the  daily  air,  that  its  logical  and  inevit¬ 
able  consequence  is  the  certain  destruction  of  the  best 
ideals  of  mankind,  if  we  must  confess  that 


“  in  ports 

Of  levity  no  refuge  can  be  found, 

No  shelter  for  a  spirit  in  distress,” 

then  let  us  resolve  to  pray  for  the  spirit  of  reverence,  and 
diligently  strive  to  be  reverent  before  God,  reverent  in 
our  sanctuaries,  reverent  in  our  homes,  reverent  in  our 
attitude  towards  all  that  is  pure  and  sacred;  for  God, 
who  alone  can  order  the  unruly  wills  and  affections  of 
sinful  men,  may  be  said  to  have  forsaken  us  when  we 
cease  to  respect  the  reverences,  human  and  Divine. 


THE  VOW. 


FRIDAY  AFTER  THE  SECOND  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 


“  And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow,  saying,  If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep 
me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put 
on,  so  that  I  come  again  to  my  father’s  house  in  peace  ;  then  shall  the  Lord 
be  my  God.” — Gen.  xxviii.  20,  21. 


WHEN  Jacob  awoke  he  felt  that  he  was  on  holy 
ground.  While  the  reverential  mood  was  still 
upon  him  he  uttered  the  vow  of  the  text.  Such  vows 
are  as  ancient  as  the  race;  and  to  this  day  some  instinct 
of  the  human  heart  prompts  men  of  every  religion  to 
take  upon  themselves  similar  sacred  engagements. 

I.  What,  then,  was  the  significance  of  Jacob’s  vow  ? 
First  of  all  we  must  notice  what  it  was  not.  How  often 
have  we  heard  it  said  that  Jacob  is  here  driving  a  bargain 
with  his  Maker,  that  he  is  shrewdly  defining  his  terms 
and  conditions,  and  selling  his  worship  for  an  equivalent, 
that  in  his  vow  we  see  clear  indications  of  that  commer¬ 
cial  adroitness  which  has  ever  distinguished  the  nation 


whose  founder  Jacob  was.  A  careless  reading  of  our 
English  version,  without  due  consideration  of  the  con¬ 
text,  might  give  some  sanction  to  this  mistaken  interpre¬ 
tation,  “  If  God  will  be  with  me,  and  keep  me,  and  feed 
me,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God.”  The  Hebrew, 
however,  as  the  authorities,  both  ancient  and  modern, 
assure  us,  warrants  no  such  construction.  The  word 
rendered  “  if  ”  is  equivalent  to  “  inasmuch  ”  or  “  since.” 
”  Since  God  is  going  to  be  with  me,  and  to  keep  me,  and 


85 


86 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


give  me  all  I  need,  and  bring  me  back  to  my  father’s 
house  in  peace;  since  He  has  promised  all  this,  and  will 
assuredly  perform  it,  I,  for  my  part,  pledge  myself  that 
He,  and  He  alone,  shall  be  my  God,  shall  have  my 
obedience,  my  worship,  my  trust,  my  adoration,  and  my 
love.”  If  this  utterance  falls  below  the  measure  of  that 
faith  which  enabled  Job  to  say,  “  Though  He  slay  me 
yet  will  I  trust  in  Him,”  Jacob  was  nevertheless  perfectly 
sincere,  and  his  vision  left  a  real  and  lasting  impression 
upon  his  soul,  an  impression  which  finds  its  honest  ex¬ 
pression  in  the  words  of  his  vow. 

2.  This  leads  on  to  some  consideration  of  the  fact  that 
we  too  are  under  vows.  Is  there  one  of  us  who  cannot 
say  with  the  Psalmist,  ”  Thy  vows  are  upon  me,  O 
God  ?  ”  In  Holy  Baptism  we  pledged  ourselves  to  re¬ 
nounce  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  to  believe  all 
the  articles  of  the  Christian  Creed,  and  obediently  to 
keep  God’s  holy  will  and  commandments.  In  Con¬ 
firmation  we  voluntarily  renewed  these  solemn  vows  and 
promises  in  the  presence  of  all  the  people  and  knelt  at 
the  Apostle’s  feet  for  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which 
should  enable  us  so  to  do.  In  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Altar  we,  from  time  to  time,  renew  all  these  vows  and 
pledge  ourselves  upon  the  Body  and  Blood  of  the  Lord 
to  continued  faithfulness  and  loyalty.  The  very  word 
sacrament,  originally  signifying  a  soldier’s  oath  of  allegi¬ 
ance  to  his  leader,  reminds  us  that  in  these  holy  rites  we 
have  pledged  our  word  and  honor  to  be  loyal  to  our 
leader,  the  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.  These  vows 
are  taken  and  imposed  by  sure  and  certain  warrants  of 
Holy  Scriptures;  they  cover  all  we  have  and  are;  and 
our  eternal  future  depends  upon  the  earnestness  of  our 
efforts  to  keep  these  vows. 


The  Vow. 


87 


The  Church  also  gives  an  Ordination  and  a  Marriage 
vow.  These  vows  are  not  demanded  of  all,  nor  of  any, 
are  entirely  voluntary,  and  imposed  only  upon  those  who 
think  they  have  vocation  for  these  states  of  life.  It  is 
sometimes  said  that  the  Ordination  vow  is  held  to-day 
with  less  sincerity  than  in  former  years — a  very  grave 
charge  which  every  clergyman  is  ready  to  disclaim  for  the 
great  majority  of  his  faithful  brethren,  while  in  his  heart 
he  fears  for  himself,  and  beseeches  the  people’s  prayers, 
lest  having  preached  to  others  he  himself  become  a  cast¬ 
away.  But  we  must  admit,  with  shame  and  sorrow,  that 
on  every  hand  the  Marriage  vow  is  assumed  lightly  and 
unadvisedly  and  as  lightly  broken,  even  by  those  who 
know  its  sacredness.  This  deadly  evil  is  growing  rapidly 
and  threatens  our  homes  and  our  altars. 

The  Church  has  also,  in  all  ages,  encouraged  her  laity 
to  take  upon  themselves  vows  of  special  devotion  to  her 
work  and  worship.  Brotherhoods,  sisterhoods,  guilds, 
and  an  order  of  deaconesses  exist,  do  noble  and  loyal 
work  and  need  recruits.  At  present  there  seems  to  be 
an  urgent  need  for  more  such  women  workers ;  and  it 
must  be  that  in  many  of  our  parishes  there  are  young 
women  who  have  generous  gifts  for  such  a  blessed  work; 
who,  perhaps,  need  only  a  word  of  encouragement  to 
lead  them  to  enter  upon  it. 

3.  The  human  heart,  however,  has  never  seemed  satis¬ 
fied  without  vows  beyond  those  already  mentioned,  vows 
made  when  some  crisis  is  at  hand.  And  most  of  those 
vows  are  neither  wise  nor  righteous.  For  example,  a  vow 
may  promise  that  which  is  in  itself  sinful,  as  when  the 
conspirators  among  the  Jews  “  bound  themselves  under 
a  curse  that  they  would  neither  eat  nor  drink  until  they 
had  killed  Paul.”  To  all  such  “  hot  and  peevish  vows  ” 


88 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


not  only  are  “  the  gods  deaf,”  but  against  them  is  kindled 
the  wrath  of  the  God  of  all  gods.  Or,  a  vow  may  be  free 
from  sin  and  yet  stupid  and  senseless,  as  when  a  man 
binds  himself  not  to  cut  his  hair  or  beard  until  a  certain 
politician  is  elected  President  of  the  United  States.  Or, 
a  vow  may  be  religious  and  yet  foolish,  as  when  a  Christ¬ 
ian  undertakes  that  which  is  impossible;  never  again,  for 
instance,  to  have  a  wicked  thought.  Such  ”  mouth- 
made  vows  which  break  themselves  ”  in  vowing  are  vain 
and  empty,  and  probably  impertinent.  But  perhaps  the 
most  common  form  of  a  wrong  vow  is  the  one  with  which 
Jacob  has  been  unjustly  charged  ;  when  men,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  try  to  bargain  with  God,  engaging  to 
do  something  to  compensate  for  past  sins  or  negligences, 
offering  to  give  Him  something  or  to  do  something  for 
Him  if  He  will  give  them  in  return  their  heart’s  desire. 
”  If  God  will  spare  my  child’s  life,”  we  say,  “  I  will  pro¬ 
mise  to  attend  Church  every  Sunday  and  become  a  regular 
communicant;  if  God  will  save  me  from  this  disgrace,  or 
ward  off  this  business  failure,  or  this  personal  humilia¬ 
tion  ;  if  God  will  give  me  this  or  that  blessing;  then  I, 
for  my  part,  will  promise  to  give  or  do  this  or  that  for 
Him.”  The  Saxon  Priest  of  Odin,  when  he  listened  to 
the  Christian  missionary,  Paulinus,  gave  expression  to 
the  same  thought,  exclaiming:  “  The  old  gods  have 
profited  me  little;  these  long  years  have  I  served  them, 
no  man  more  diligently,  and  yet  many  are  richer  and 
more  prosperous  than  I  am.  I  will  try  the  new.”  We 
are  told  that  in  Mexico  a  gambler  will  sometimes  place  a 
picture  of  the  Virgin  on  the  table,  vowing  to  her  so  many 
candles  or  dollars  if  she  will  win  for  him  ;  and,  if  he  loses, 
will  sometimes,  in  a  burst  of  rage,  draw  his  knife  and 
hack  in  pieces  the  picture  of  his  divinity.  We  smile  and 


The  Vow. 


89 


sigh  complacently  over  such  miserable  Christianity  as 
this;  and  yet,  in  a  subtler  form  we  often  yield  to  this 
same  error.  Even  Abraham  Lincoln  was  thus  ensnared. 
Before  a  certain  battle  Mr.  Lincoln  vowed  that  if  the 
Confederates  were  defeated  he  would  emancipate  the 
slaves.  And  into  such  vows  as  this  the  best  of  us  may 
be  beguiled.  Now,  how  and  why  was  Lincoln’s  vow 
wrong  ?  Because  it  was  not  a  true  vow  but  an  offered 
bargain.  If  after  he  had  prayed  and  fought,  God  had 
answered  and  helped  and  given  him  victory,  then  he 
might  have  righteously  vowed  his  vow,  “Since  God  has 
helped  me  to  defeat  the  foe  I  will  free  the  slaves.’’ 

“  And  when  thou  vowest  a  vow,’’  says  the  Scripture, 
“  defer  not  to  pay  it;  for  He  hath  no  pleasure  in 
fools;  pay  that  thou  hast  vowed.’’  But  we  all  know 
how  thankfulness  for  answered  prayer  soon  fades  and  that 
convalescents  have  short  memories.  It  will  be  strange  if 
many  of  us  are  not  under  true  and  binding  vows  made  in 
the  past  for  answered  prayers.  Let  us  pay  our  vows  and 
cherish  our  gratitude.  Ingratitude  is  base.  Furthermore, 
our  word  was  pledged.  We  take  pride  in  being  as  good 
as  our  word.  A  promise  to  a  fellow-mortal  we  regard  as 
sacred.  And  is  God  less  than  mortal  man  ?  Can  we 
break  our  word  to  Him  without  dishonor  ?  And  you 
have  given  Him  your  word  of  honor.  At  a  time  when 
your  heart  overflowed  with  gratitude  or  was  aflame  with 
love  you  vowed,  “  Now  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God.’’ 
Do  you  remember,  while  you  listen,  some  such  vow  of 
the  past  ?  Consider,  then,  that  the  merciful  Lord  who 
heard  your  vow  grieves  over  your  neglect  and  dis¬ 
honor;  and,  it  may  be,  is  sending  this  present  message 
to  your  soul  in  order  to  shame  you  back  to  your  honor 
and  win  His  wandering  child  to  His  heart  once  more. 


90  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

If  you  heed  not  His  message  of  love,  by  and  by,  but 
still  in  love,  He  will  make  you  feel  the  weight  of  His  rod. 


THE  ALTAR. 


SATURDAY  AFTER  THE  SECOND  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  This  stone,  which  I  have  set  for  a  pillar,  shall  be  God’s  house.” — Gen. 
xxviii.  22. 

HOSE  who  have  seen  Rubens’s  great  picture  of 


1  Jacob’s  Ladder-vision  in  Antwerp  Cathedral  will 
never  forget  the  ideal  beauty  of  the  young  patriarch’s 
face.  The  painting  is  a  blaze  of  glorious  light.  The 
stone  pillow  shines  like  a  lamp  of  gold  in  the  radiance. 
The  ladder  and  the  angels  are  marvels  in  design  and 
execution.  But  in  the  rapture  of  the  sleeper’s  face  the 
genius  of  the  painter  has  its  chief  expression.  Think, 
then,  of  the  look  on  Jacob’s  face  when  he  awoke.  What 
painter  could  reproduce  the  countenance  of  one  whose 
soul  was  filled  with  awe,  gratitude,  and  faith,  the  counten¬ 
ance  of  a  true  worshipper  ? 

Yesterday  we  considered  the  vow  which  now  passed 
Jacob’s  lips;  since  God  has  promised  to  be  with  him  and 
keep  him  and  never  leave  him,  Jacob  is  resolved  that  the 
Lord  shall  be  his  God.  The  narrative  to-day  brings  be¬ 
fore  us  three  particulars  in  connection  with  his  act  of 
worship  on  awakening  from  his  dream. 

i.  First,  he  “  took  the  stone  that  he  had  put  for  his 
pillow  and  set  it  up  for  a  pillar  and  poured  oil  upon  it.” 
This  oil,  in  a  small  skin  bag,  he  may  have  carried  as  a 
medicine,  or  possibly  for  food  in  some  necessity.  We 
know  that  he  left  his  father’s  dwelling  with  only  the 
scantiest  provision  for  his  journey.  In  later  times  the 

qi 


92 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


prophets,  in  order  to  rebuke  the  proud  and  haughty 
spirit  of  the  Jews,  reminded  them  that  “  a  Syrian  ready 
to  perish  was  their  father;”  while  Jacob  himself  tells  us 
that  when  he  crossed  the  Jordan  the  staff  he  brought 
from  home  was  his  sole  earthly  possession.  And  yet, 
although  his  present  provision  for  making  an  external  act 
of  worship  was  very  meagre,  he  had  no  thought  of  defer¬ 
ring  his  devotions  to  a  more  convenient  season.  He 
would  consecrate  himself  to  the  service  of  God  now, 
while  the  impulse  to  do  so  was  strong  upon  him.  Though 
he  had  no  sacrificial  victim  to  offer,  he  reverently  made 
use  of  such  symbols  as  he  could  command  and  worship¬ 
ped  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  He  set  up  for  an  altar 
the  stone  which  had  been  his  pillow  while  he  dreamed. 
It  may  have  been  a  meteoric  stone  bearing  outward  evi¬ 
dences  of  its  heavenly  origin.  It  may  have  been  the 
Stone  of  Scone  now  under  the  Coronation  Chair  in  the 
Chapel  of  St.  Edward  the  Confessor  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  The  stone  which  had  been  his  pillow  Jacob 
turned  into  an  altar.  He  would  commemorate  the 
Divine  communication  and  remind  others  who  should  see 
it  that  God  had  visited  this  spot.  And  whenever  Jacob 
met  with  a  special  revelation  or  dispensation  of  the  good 
providence  of  God  he  set  up  a  stone  as  a  memorial. 

Blessed,  thrice  blessed  is  the  man,  to  whom  life  is,” 
as  it  was  to  Jacob,  “  dotted  over  with  memorials  of  com¬ 
munion  with  God.”  What  those  rude  altars  of  old  did 
for  the  patriarch,  memory  does  for  us.  “I  too,”  says  a 
holy  man,  “  remember  with  gratitude  the  places  where  I 
have  found  God  near,  the  saints  by  whom  He  has  spoken 
to  me,  the  occasions  of  comfort  and  peace  which  He  has 
sent ;  as  long  as  memory  lasts,  I  would  preserve  these 
with  gratitude.” 


The  Altar. 


93 


2.  Again,  Jacob  “  called  the  name  of  that  place  Bethel ; 
but  the  name  of  that  city  was  called  Luz  at  the  first.” 
Luz  means  an  almond  tree;  Bethel,  the  house  of  God. 
Afterwards,  perhaps  with  reference  to  this  event,  in  the 
temple,  the  branches  of  the  golden  candle-stick,  a  figure 
of  the  Church,  were  to  have  knobs  of  almonds,  and  the 
sacerdotal  rod  of  Aaron  budded  with  almonds.  So  when¬ 
ever  doubt  is  turned  into  faith,  repentance  into  forgive¬ 
ness,  Luz  becomes  Bethel,  and  the  grove  of  almonds  is 
transformed  into  the  house  of  God. 

It  was  a  good  instinct  which  led  Jacob  to  seek  to  per¬ 
petuate  the  sacred  impression  of  the  moment.  There  is 
a  spiritual  value  in  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  religious 
worship;  impressions  and  excited  feelings  are  transient 
and  will  fade  away  unless  they  are  turned  into  some  fixed 
and  permanent  mould  which  shall  give  the  spirit  a  form 
for  its  home.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  “  religion  is  an 
inward  thing,  that  it  does  not  consist  in  church-going, 
keeping  the  Lord’s  Day,  public  worship,  sacraments,  and 
so  forth,  but  is  only  a  state  of  the  spirit.”  And  yet  we 
all  know  that  if  we  neglect  these  outward  observances 
our  religion  withers  and  dies.  Human  nature  requires 
the  aid  of  these  external  reminders  of  the  great  facts  and 
duties  of  Christianity.  The  Holy  Communion  alone  is  a 
monument  which  keeps  forever  before  the  eyes  and  ears 
of  the  faithful  the  leading  events  in  the  life  of  our  blessed 
Saviour,  while  His  Body  and  His  Blood,  given  and  re¬ 
ceived,  sustain  and  strengthen  the  spirit  of  the  wor¬ 
shipper. 

Jacob  said, “  This  pillar  shall  be  God’s  house.  ”  St.  Paul 
interprets  and  applies  these  words  to  the  Church  of  Christ, 
which  he  calls  “Bethel,  the  house  of  God,’’  “the  Church 
of  the  living  God;  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth.” 


94 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


3.  But  there  is  something  more.  Jacob  is  resolved  to 
honor  God  with  his  substance — “  Of  all  that  Thou  give 
me  I  will  surely  give  the  tenth  unto  Thee.”  The  in¬ 
stinctive  feeling  that  an  altar  demands  an  offering  is  ap¬ 
proved  by  many  passages  of  Holy  Scripture.  But  the 
feeling  comes  of  itself.  O  ye  Corinthians,”  says  the 

Apostle,  “  our  heart  is  enlarged.”  That  is  an  experience 
which  repeats  itself  every  time  the  heart  is  opened  to 
God.  Expansion  and  expression  is  a  law  of  spiritual 
growth.  The  Dead  Sea  is  dead  because  it  has  no  outlet. 
It  is  always  receiving  and  never  giving.  Nevertheless 
the  failure  of  Christians  generally  to  fulfil  the  reasonable 
requirements  of  God  in  offerings  and  gifts  and  sacrifices 
is  a  deplorable  fact.  Under  the  changed  conditions  of 
modern  society  the  precise  proportion  named  by  Jacob 
may  not  be,  in  all  cases,  the  Christian  requirement.  In 
some  instances  we  are  told  that  it  is  impossible ;  in  many 
others  it  would  be  too  easy  a  demand,  for  to  many  the 
tenth  of  the  income  would  mean  no  sacrifice  at  all.  For 
most  of  us  it  would  undoubtedly  be  a  wise  rule  to  make 
the  tenth  the  standard  of  our  giving,  with  the  conviction 
that  that  proportion  is  our  just  due  and  that  all  we  give 
in  addition  thereto  may  be  regarded  as  a  free-will  offer¬ 
ing.  Do  we  not  know  that  all  we  have  is  derived  from 
God  ?  Is  He  not  the  giver  of  every  good  and  perfect 
gift  ?  ”  Both  riches  and  honor  come  of  Thee,  O  Lord.” 

The  very  coins  we  handle  have  stamped  upon  their  face, 
”  In  God  we  trust.”  Furthermore,  our  lives  also  are  in 
His  hands.  “  He  giveth  life  and  health  to  all  things.” 
How  are  we  recognizing  and  meeting  these  obligations  ? 
Are  none  of  us  generous,  nay,  extravagant,  towards  self, 
niggardly  towards  God  ?  Are  there  not  communicants 
who  pay  more  for  a  single  article  of  personal  adornment 


The  Altar. 


95 


or  apparel  than  they  pay  for  their  pew,  more  than  they 
ever  give  to  missions  ?  The  Scriptures  abound  in  warn¬ 
ings  against  the  perversion  of  God’s  gifts.  “  Take  heed 
and  beware  of  covetousness.”  “  If  riches  increase  set 
not  your  heart  upon  them.”  ”  Ye  cannot  serve  God 
and  mammon.”  “  They  that  will  be  rich  fall  into  temp¬ 
tation  and  a  snare  and  into  many  foolish  and  hurtful 
lusts  which  drown  men  in  destruction  and  perdition.” 
”  Your  gold  and  silver  is  cankered  and  the  rust  of  them 
shall  eat  your  flesh  as  it  were  fire.”  “  Charge  them  that 
are  rich  in  this  world,  that  they  be  not  high-minded,  nor 
trust  in  uncertain  riches,  but  in  the  living  God,  who 
giveth  us  all  things  richly  to  enjoy;  that  they  do  good, 
that  they  be  rich  in  good  works,  ready  to  give  and  glad 
to  distribute.”  From  such  passages  as  these  it  appears 
that  even  if  our  offerings  were  not  needed  for  the  altar  of 
Christ,  the  necessity  of  giving  as  an  antidote  for  selfish¬ 
ness  would  still  remain.  In  His  mercy  God  has  placed  in 
our  hands  the  medicine  which  alone  can  heal  that  deadly 
disease  of  greed.  And  so,  if  the  love  of  money  is  the 
root  of  all  evil,  the  right  use  of  it  in  God’s  sight  is  a 
source  of  virtue  and  joy  and  peace. 

To  encourage  Christian  beneficence  Holy  Scripture, 
therefore,  gives  precious  promises  of  temporal  care  and 
spiritual  prosperity  to  the  liberal  giver.  “  Trust  in  the 
Lord,  and  do  good;  so  shalt  thou  dwell  in  the  land,  and 
verily  thou  shalt  be  fed.”  ”  Honor  the  Lord  with  thy 
substance  and  with  the  first-fruits  of  all  thine  increase;  so 
shalt  thy  barns  be  filled  with  plenty,  and  thy  presses 
shall  burst  out  with  new  wine.”  “  The  liberal  man  de- 
viseth  liberal  things  and  by  liberal  things  shall  he  stand. 
The  liberal  soul  shall  be  made  fat.”  “  To  do  good  and 
to  distribute  forget  not ;  for  with  such  sacrifices  God  is 


96 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


well  pleased.”  “  Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  store¬ 
house  and  prove  me  now  herewith,  saith  the  Lord  of 
Hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you  the  windows  of  heaven  and 
pour  you  out  a  blessing  that  there  shall  not  be  room 
enough  to  receive  it.” 

When  Jacob  ended  his  act  of  worship  he  departed, 
or  literally,  as  it  is  in  the  margin  of  our  Bible,  “  When 
Jacob  lifted  up  his  feet.”  His  feet  were  light,  for  joy 
was  in  his  heart.  He  had  the  assurance  for  which  our 
Collect  prays  that  he  would  be  defended  from  all  adversi¬ 
ties  which  might  happen  to  the  body  and  from  all  evil 
thoughts  which  might  assault  and  hurt  the  soul.  At  the 
Christian  altar  we  too  may  lay  down  our  burdens  and  go 
on  our  way  rejoicing. 


SERVING  FOR  RACHEL. 


MONDAY  AFTER  THE  THIRD  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  Jacob  loved  Rachel ;  and  said,  I  will  serve  thee  seven  years  for 
Rachel  thy  younger  daughter.  And  Jacob  served  seven  years  for  Rachel  ; 
and  they  seemed  unto  him  but  a  few  days,  for  the  love  he  had  to  her.” — 
Gen.  xxix.  18,  20. 

IN  this  chapter  we  see  Jacob  preserved  from  Esau’s 
anger,  escaping  from  the  perils  of  his  long  journey, 
and  safe  at  last  in  the  home  of  Laban  his  mother’s 
brother.  And  here  he  finds  Rachel.  The  God  who  met 
him  on  the  way  and  opened  heaven  to  his  wondering 
gaze  has  been  with  him  and  kept  him  as  He  promised. 

Now  when  we  recall  the  circumstances  which  led  to 
Jacob’s  exile  from  the  Holy  Land  one  fact  stands  out 
with  significant  distinctness.  It  is  the  providence  by 
which  God  saved  him  from  the  murderous  revenge  of  his 
brother.  Esau  said  in  his  heart,  “  I  will  slay  my 
brother!  ”  For  years  Esau  has  despised  spiritual  things, 
living  for  self  and  the  senses  only.  Gradually  he  has  de¬ 
teriorated.  For, 


“  Unless  above  himself  he  can 
Erect  himself,  how  mean  a  thing  is  man  !  ” 

Now  he  has  become  wicked  enough  to  desire  the  life  of 
the  playmate  of  his  earliest  years,  his  only  brother.  Yet 
there  is  one  tender  memory  in  his  heart  and  that  restrains 
his  hand;  he  thinks  of  the  blind  old  man  reclining  in 
yonder  tent,  so  near  his  earthly  end,  and  he  shrinks  from 


98 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


grieving  his  father  by  this  deed  of  blood.  So  he  puts  off 
his  purpose.  ‘  ‘  I  will  wait,  ”  he  says,  ‘  ‘  till  my  father  dies  in 
peace;  then  vengeance  shall  be  mine.’'  But  that  delay 
saved  Jacob’s  life.  It  is  often  so  with  us.  How  many 
evil  intentions  fall  to  the  ground  like  unripened  buds  in  a 
heavy  gale!  How  many  evil  deeds  that  men  design, 
which  would  fill  the  world  with  horror  and  despair,  never 
find  accomplishment  !  The  would-be  murderer  creeps  to 
the  side  of  the  sleeper’s  bed,  lifts  his  hand  to  strike  the 
blow  of  death,  when  something  in  that  calm  face  reminds 
him  of  his  own  mother  as  she  lay  dead,  and  he  creeps 
hastily  away  with  the  fear  of  the  unseen  upon  him ;  and 
the  victim  lives  out  his  years.  We  cannot  measure  or 
imagine  what  the  world  is  saved  of  misery  by  this  opera¬ 
tion  of  what  is  naturally  good  in  us  upon  what  is  naturally 
bad.  We  may  call  it  the  restraint  of  our  better  selves 
upon  our  evil  selves.  It  is  true  that  the  wide  continents 
are  already  filled  with  the  woe  which  follows  in  the  wake 
of  sin;  but  what  would  the  world  be  if,  added  to  all  this 
evil,  there  were  the  vast  and  incalculable  number  of 
crimes  which  men  intended  to  carry  out  but  are  somehow 
restrained  from ;  if,  in  a  word,  the  evil  designs  of  all  hu¬ 
man  hearts  could  grow  into  deeds  ? 

The  proverb  that  there  is  “  a  soft  spot  ”  in  every  heart 
is  founded  upon  fact.  Esau  loved  his  father,  and  that 
tenderness  in  his  wild  nature  delayed  and  finally  defeated 
his  purpose.  But  if  Jacob  escaped  death  he  was  not  to 
escape  the  penalty  of  that  wrong  which  angered  Esau. 
His  punishment  began  at  once  in  his  banishment  from 
home  and  lasted  until  guile  was  beaten  down  within  his 
soul. 

His  long  journey  at  length  draws  near  its  end.  One 
morning  Jacob  reaches  a  well  where  are  some  shepherds 


Serving  for  Rachel. 


99 


with  their  sheep.  The  traveller  at  once  begins  to  question 
them.  An  old  commentator  remarks  that  no  one  need 
be  above  asking  questions  and  that  often  our  failure  to 
ask  them  leaves  us  ignorant  of  much  interesting  and  im¬ 
portant  information.  He  learns  from  these  men  that  his 
uncle  lives  in  the  neighborhood,  a  leading  citizen,  and 
that,  according  to  their  custom,  they  are  waiting  till  all 
the  flocks  are  gathered  together  before  they  open  the 
well.  “  And  here,”  exclaims  one  of  them,  “  comes 
Rachel,  Laban’s  daughter,  with  the  sheep.” 

As  soon  as  Jacob  sees  his  beautiful  cousin  drawing  near, 
possibly  for  the  purpose  of  attracting  her  favorable  atten¬ 
tion,  at  least  with  the  desire  of  rendering  her  a  service  of 
gallantry,  he  takes  upon  himself  the  task  of  several  men, 
and  putting  forth  all  his  manly  strength,  rolls  the  ”  great 
stone  ”  away  from  the  well’s  mouth  and  gives  water  to 
Rachel’s  flock.  Then  he  makes  himself  known,  embraces 
Rachel,  and  weeps  for  joy. 

In  passing  notice  how,  in  this  turning-point  of  his  life, 
Jacob’s  character  as  a  shepherd  appears.  No  sooner  did 
he  see  the  thirsty  sheep  gathered  about  the  unopened 
well  than  he  longed  to  have  them  watered  and  led  out  to 
the  green  pastures.  All  his  life  long  he  kept  and  cared 
for  the  sheep ;  and  in  this  respect,  as  in  many  others,  he 
pointed  forward  to  that  Redeemer  who  was  the  Good 
Shepherd  of  mankind. 

In  Laban’s  home  Jacob  remained  for  a  month  as  a 
visitor.  His  uncle  soon  discovered  that  his  youthful 
kinsman  possessed  a  thorough  mastery  of  the  shepherd’s 
calling,  and  he  was  eager  to  secure  his  services  for  a  term 
of  years.  In  what  follows,  a  true  Eastern  pastoral,  un¬ 
surpassed  in  beauty  and  pathos  by  the  later  classics,  we 
shall  want  to  hear  once  more  the  charming  words  of  the 


IOO 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 

old  narrative  itself:  “  And  Laban  said  unto  Jacob,  Be¬ 
cause  thou  art  my  brother,  shouldest  thou  therefore  serve 
me  for  nought  ?  tell  me,  what  shall  thy  wages  be  ?  And 
Laban  had  two  daughters:  the  name  of  the  elder  was  Leah, 
and  the  name  of  the  younger  was  Rachel.  Leah  was  ten¬ 
der  eyed ;  but  Rachel  was  beautiful  and  well  favored.  And 
Jacob  loved  Rachel  ;  and  said,  I  will  serve  thee  seven 
years  for  Rachel  thy  younger  daughter.  And  Laban 
said,  It  is  better  that  I  give  her  to  thee,  than  that  I 
should  give  her  to  another  man:  abide  with  me.  And 
Jacob  served  seven  years  for  Rachel;  and  they  seemed 
unto  him  but  a  few  days,  for  the  love  he  had  to  her.” 

Laban’s  proposition  opened  the  way  for  Jacob  to  de¬ 
clare  his  love;  and,  as  he  had  no  dower  to  offer,  he 
eagerly  grasped  the  opportunity  to  propose  for  her  this 
long  term  of  personal  service.  And  these  years,  we  are 
told,  seemed  short  because  of  his  great  love.  There  are 
other  human  passions, — hate,  avarice,  fear,  ambition, — 
which  have  held  men  constant  to  long,  laborious  tasks, 
but  love  alone  could  make  the  time  seem  short.  It  is 
easy  to  believe  that  these  seven  years  while  the  child 
Rachel  became  a  woman  were  the  happiest  days  of  J acob’s 
chequered  life.  Every  reader  sees  clearly  that  his  con¬ 
stant  love  for  Rachel  is  one  of  the  marked  things  in  his 
career.  That  love  never  wavered,  and  her  name  was  on 
his  dying  lips.  Coleridge  has  said,  “  No  man  could  be 
a  bad  man  who  loved  as  Jacob  loved  Rachel.”  The  say¬ 
ing  may  be  true;  but  we  shall  quite  miss  the  meaning  of 
his  life  if  we  admit  that  there  can  be  any  question  of 
his  “  goodness.”  He  was  accepted  of  God.  He  was  a 
spiritual  man.  His  history  is  the  story  of  the  conflict 
between  his  higher  and  his  lower  natures  and  the  slow 
but  final  victory  of  the  spirit  over  the  flesh. 


Serving  for  Rachel.  ioi 

We  are  to  see,  therefore,  in  the  great  disappointment 
of  his  affections  not  only  a  merited  punishment  but  also 
a  Divine  discipline.  How  often  does  the  old  saying 
come  true  that  God  pays  us  in  our  own  coin !  So  in  the 
present  instance  we  see  the  deceiver  deceived  and  the 
cheat  cheated.  When  the  seven  years’  service  ended 
the  marriage  feast  was  prepared.  Then  the  heartless 
Laban  took  his  weak-eyed  elder  daughter,  and  disguising 
her  beneath  the  ample  veil  which  custom  demanded  for 
a  bride,  substituted  her  for  her  younger  sister  Rachel. 
When  Jacob  discovered  the  fraud  he  did  not  repudiate 
the  marriage.  He  submitted  with  what  Martin  Luther 
calls  “  superhuman  patience.”  With  a  breaking  heart 
he  acknowledged  to  himself  that  the  measure  he  had 
meted  out  to  others  was  now  meted  to  him  again  —  that 
in  this  thing  God  was  seeking  to  make  all  trickery  and 
guile  odious  to  him  forever.  What  Rachel  said  and 
thought  is  not  recorded.  When  Laban  saw  that  Jacob 
was  ready  to  sacrifice  his  love  and  the  labor  of  years  to  the 
claims  of  religion,  this  avaricious  and  unfatherly  father 
proposed  that  he  should  also  marry  Rachel  and  serve  him 
yet  seven  other  years  for  her.  Polygamy,  while  not  un¬ 
usual  or  unlawful,  was  virtually  forced  upon  Jacob.  It 
speaks  much  for  him  that  he  did  not  himself  propose  or 
demand  a  second  marriage.  And  so  Jacob  continued  to 
serve  for  Rachel  for  seven  additional  years. 

This  discipline  was  good  for  Jacob’s  soul.  By  this 
means  the  doubleness,  indirection,  prevarication,  natu¬ 
rally  so  strong  in  him,  was  beaten  down  and  kept 
under. 

Let  us  too  submit  thankfully  to  the  chastisement  of 
the  Lord.  If  we  have  made  the  great  choice,  all  that  is 
laid  on  us  is  designed  to  make  us  loathe  our  sins,  to  lift 


102 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


up  our  hearts,  and  to  guide  our  feet  into  the  paths  of 
righteousness  and  peace.  As  has  been  said :  “  God  de¬ 
lights  to  see  grace  in  us  at  all  times;  but  He  loves  not  to 
see  it  latent.  He  desires  it  to  be  in  exercise.  And  in 
order  to  bring  it  into  exercise  He  uses  the  instrumentality 
of  suffering.  The  leaves  of  the  aromatic  plant  shed  but 
a  faint  odor,  as  they  wave  in  the  air.  The  gold  shines 
scarcely  at  all  as  it  lies  hid  in  the  ore.  The  rugged  crust 
of  the  pebble  conceals  from  the  eye  its  interior  beauty. 
But  let  the  aromatic  leaf  be  crushed  ;  let  the  ore  be  sub¬ 
mitted  to  the  furnace  ;  let  the  pebble  be  cut  and  polished; 
and  the  fragrance,  the  splendor,  the  fair  colors  are  then 
brought  out :  ” — 


“  This  leaf  ?  This  stone?  It  is  thy  heart  : 
It  must  be  crushed  by  pain  and  smart, 

It  must  be  cleansed  by  sorrow’s  art — 

Ere  it  will  yield  a  fragrance  sweet, 

Ere  it  will  shine,  a  jewel  meet 
To  lay  before  thy  dear  Lord’s  feet.” 


THE  RETURN. 


TUESDAY  AFTER  THE  THIRD  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  I  am  the  God  of  Bethel,  where  thou  anointedst  the  pillar,  and  where 
thou  vowedst  a  vow  unto  me  ;  now  arise,  get  thee  out  from  this  land,  and 
return  unto  the  land  of  thy  kindred.” — Gen.  xxxi.  13. 

IN  the  story  of  the  fourteen  years  of  Jacob’s  service  for 
Rachel  there  is  nothing  set  down  to  his  discredit. 
To  Laban,  his  father-in-law,  he  was  a  faithful  servant. 
He  served  God,  too,  with  all  his  heart.  His  untiring 
industry,  his  intelligent  supervision  of  every  detail  of  his 
work,  his  masterful  yet  kindly  rule  over  his  keepers  and 
dependants,  his  gifts  of  management  and  organization, 
and  his  keen  daily  oversight  of  all  his  business,  speedily 
won  its  reward,  and  the  flocks  under  his  care  throve  and 
multiplied.  Laban’s  chief  shepherd  in  a  few  years  made 
his  master  a  rich  man.  As  the  seasons  passed  the  vision 
at  Bethel  was  ever  with  him,  his  occupation  was  congenial 
and  arduous,  his  children  grew  up  under  his  own  eye,  the 
constant  example  of  his  tricky  father-in-law  helped  to 
make  guile,  his  besetting  sin,  odious;  while  the  childless¬ 
ness  of  his  beloved  Rachel  was,  perhaps,  the  only  shadow 
over  these  toilsome  yet  healthful  and  blessed  years. 

It  is  true  that  the  polygamy  which  was  almost  forced 
upon  him  produced  its  inevitable  harvest  of  jealousies 
and  heart-burnings.  In  that  early  age  of  the  world, 
however,  it  was  often  the  least  of  many  evils,  and  in  the 
present  instance  seems  to  have  been  tolerated,  even  ap¬ 
proved  of  God,  who  brought  good  out  of  the  evil.  The 

103 


104 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


early  Christian  fathers,  who  were  almost  contemporary 
with  the  Apostles,  dwell  at  length  upon  the  spiritual  and 
mystical  meaning  of  this  portion  of  the  patriarch’s  life. 
According  to  these  holy  men  of  old,  Jacob,  the  son 
blessed  of  his  father,  who  became  a  pilgrim,  an  exile,  a 
shepherd  and  a  servant,  for  the  sake  of  Rachel  whom  he 
loved,  is  a  type  of  Jesus  Christ.  Rachel,  whose  name 
signifies  a  “  sheep,”  represents  the  lost  sheep  Christ 
loved  and  suffered  for  that  they  might  become  a  Church 
”  Espoused  to  Himself  in  mystical  wedlock,  by  His 
blessed  Word  and  Sacraments,”  purchased  with  His  own 
precious  blood.  Justin  Martyr,  Irenaeus,  and  Ambrose 
saw  also  in  Jacob’s  twelve  sons,  heads  of  the  Twelve 
Tribes  of  Israel,  born  of  different  mothers,  “  a  fore¬ 
shadowing  that  all  spiritual  Israelites  derive  their  life 
from  Christ.  Jacob  loved  Rachel  and  his  design  was  to 
have  one,  and  only  one,  wife.  So  in  Christ’s  will  and 
desire,  there  is  one  Catholic  Church,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  the  world.  But  all  that  is  human  is  marred 
by  blemishes  and  sullied  by  stains  of  sin.  Still  God’s 
purposes  are  not  overthrown;  Christ  is  the  one  author 
and  giver  of  spiritual  grace  wheresoever  it  flows.  Leah 
was  clandestinely  introduced  into  wedlock  with  Jacob. 
Rachel  was  not  exempt  from  envy  and  jealousy;  so  the 
Church  in  this  world  has  many  spots  and  wrinkles  of 
human  infirmities.  Separate  congregations  are  conse¬ 
quences  of  her  sin  and  barrenness.  But  wheresoever 
Christians  are  born,  whether  it  be  at  Jerusalem  or  Sam¬ 
aria,  whether  it  be  in  the  unity  of  the  Church,  or  in 
schismatical  sects,  all  their  spiritual  life,  all  their  spiritual 
grace,  all  their  hopes  of  blessing  from  God,  are  derived 
from  Him  who  became  a  physician,  a  servant  and  a 
'  shepherd  for  their  sakes;  the  true  Jacob — the  promised 


The  Return. 


*05 

seed  of  Abraham,  the  ever  blessed  son,  Jesus  Christ.” 
In  such  a  winning  way  did  the  first  Christian  teachers 
combine  sound  Church  doctrine  with  the  charity  and  bal¬ 
ance  learned  from  those  who  had  seen  Christ. 

When  Joseph  was  born  Jacob  seems  to  have  regarded 
him  as  the  heir  of  promise.  About  this  time,  too,  his  sec¬ 
ond  term  of  service  came  to  an  end.  The  way  appeared 
open  for  his  return  with  Joseph  to  the  land  of  promise; 
and  so  he  said  to  Laban,  ”  Send  me  away,  that  I  may  go 
unto  mine  own  place  and  to  my  country.”  Laban, 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  losing  the  man  whose  skill 
had  enriched  him,  at  once  acknowledges  his  obligations 
to  Jacob,  even  owning  that  the  Lord  had  blessed  him  for 
Jacob’s  sake,  and  offers  to  pay  his  nephew  from  that  time 
forth  his  own  price.  “  Appoint  me  thy  wages,”  says 
Laban,  ”  and  I  will  give  it.”  It  is  clear  that  the  crafty 
old  man  had  never  read  what  was  written  behind  the 
calm  and  patient  eyes  of  his  son-in-law.  He  said  to  him¬ 
self,  ‘ ‘  I  have  cheated  and  managed  him  for  fourteen  years ; 
it  will  be  easy  to  keep  him  in  my  power.”  When  Jacob, 
therefore,  accepted  the  offer  and  proceeded  to  name  his 
terms  for  another  period  of  service,  Laban  with  difficulty 
could  restrain  or  conceal  his  greedy  joy  as  he  promptly 
closed  the  bargain.  He  had  expected,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  to  get  the  advantage  of  his  simple  and  pious  rela¬ 
tive,  but  he  scarcely  had  counted  on  doing  it  so  speedily 
and  entirely.  And  what  was  Jacob’s  proposition  ?  He 
agreed  to  serve  a  third  seven  years,  not  for  payment  in 
money,  but  on  condition  of  receiving  for  his  own  all  the 
spotted,  speckled,  brown,  and  ringstraked  animals  the 
flocks  of  Laban  might  produce;  while,  to  begin  with, 
Laban  was  to  be  permitted  to  remove  to  a  place  three 
miles  away  all  animals  which  were  not  already  pure  white. 


106  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

The  young  man  seemed  determined  to  cheat  himself. 
Evidently  he  had  no  head  for  business.  Laban’s  prompt 
acceptance  of  the  offer  shows  that  he  was  an  utterly 
avaricious  and  unscrupulous  man. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  we  attempt  to  analyze  Jacob’s 
motives  in  proposing  these  terms  we  meet  with  consider¬ 
able  difficulty.  We  know  he  was  not  the  simple  and 
unsophisticated  youth  he  seemed  to  Laban.  We  must 
remember  that  he  had  a  keen  and  strong  mind.  He  had 
become,  too,  the  most  skilful  shepherd  in  all  the  land. 
He  put  brains  into  his  work.  He  knew  what  was  going 
on.  What,  then,  was  the  outcome  of  this  bargain  ? 
Jacob’s  flocks  and  herds  increased  almost  miraculously, 
and  he  was  soon  a  master  and  prosperous  proprietor  on 
his  own  account.  Jacob  himself  tells  us  that  God  blessed 
him,  gave  him  skill,  and  enriched  him,  and  that  the  arti¬ 
fices  he  employed  were  revealed  to  him  in  a  dream.  But 
the  commentators  are  not  agreed  upon  this  point.  Some 
say,  “  He  sets  himself  to  secure  the  very  wealth  which 
God  had  promised  to  bestow  upon  him,  by  base  and 
crooked  means;  ”  that  “  we  might  as  soon  sprinkle  rose¬ 
water  on  a  sewer  as  attempt  to  justify  Jacob’s  morality  ;  ” 
that  he  even  “  uses  religious  language  to  conceal  his 
duplicity.”  On  the  contrary,  the  more  conservative  and 
accepted  authorities  assure  us  that  “  there  was  nothing 
fraudulent  whatever  in  what  Jacob  did.”  The  truth  lies 
probably  between  these  two  extremes.  Jacob  knew  he 
was  dealing  with  a  rogue,  and  the  natural  man  in  him, 
the  crafty  man,  loving  indirection  and  doubleness,  and 
loving  money,  rose  up  to  meet  the  cunning  opposed  to 
him.  “  It  was  diamond  cut  diamond.”  The  Jacob- 
nature,  subdued  by  the  vision  at  Bethel,  was  not  dead, 
and,  in  this  congenial  air,  revived.  We  know  not  what 


The  Return. 


107 


inward  battles  he  fought  against  selfishness  and  guile; 
we  know  only  that  each  one  of  us  has  the  same  enemy, 
called  self  within,  and  that  we  must  each  plead  to  God 
with  all  our  might : 

“  God  harden  me  against  myself, 

This  traitor  with  pathetic  voice 

Which  craves  for  ease,  and  rest,  and  joys  ; 

Myself  arch-traitor  to  myself, 

My  hollowest  friend,  my  deadliest  foe, 

My  clog  whatever  road  I  go.” 


At  length  Laban’s  sons  became  jealous  of  Jacob  and 
accused  him  of  dishonesty.  Laban  himself  was  suspicious 
and  envious;  and  Jacob  “  beheld  the  countenance  of 
Laban,  and  behold,  it  was  not  toward  him  as  before.” 
These  troubles  evidently  led  Jacob  to  his  prayers  and 
meditations,  for  soon  he  seemed  to  hear  a  voice  speaking 
in  his  ear  the  words  of  the  text:  “  I  am  the  God  of 
Bethel,  where  thou  anointedst  a  pillar,  and  where  thou 
vowedst  a  vow  unto  Me:  arise,  get  thee  out  of  this  land, 
and  return  unto  the  land  of  thy  kindred.”  And  Jacob 
obeyed  the  call. 

Notice  the  significance  of  the  expression,  “  I  am  the 
God  of  Bethel.”  He  is  reminded  of  the  place  where  his 
heart  was  touched  and  where  he  made  his  vow.  These 
words  seemed  to  say  to  him,  ”  I  am  the  same  Divine 
Friend  who  met  you  in  your  sins  and  forgave  you;  I  am 
the  promise-keeping  God ;  I  have  not  forsaken  you ;  I 
have  kept  you ;  I  am  with  you.  I  am  the  God  of  those 
early  mercies;  I  saved  you  then;  I  have  saved  you  many 
times  since;  what  I  have  been  to  you  is  the  pledge  and 
assurance  of  what  I  will  be  to  you.  At  Bethel  also  you 
vowed  to  be  Mine,  saying,  The  Lord  shall  be  my  God. 
Forget  not  that  you  are  Mine.” 


io8 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


God  speaks  likewise  to  each  one  of  us:  “At  the  altar 
you  too  vowed  before  men  and  angels  that  you  would 
love  and  serve  Me  to  the  end.  Keep  that  vow.  I  will 
help  you  keep  it,  and  save  you  in  spite  of  yourself.” 


THE  PURSUIT. 


WEDNESDAY  AFTER  THE  THIRD  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  Mizpab  ;  for  he  said,  The  Lord  watch  between  me  and  thee, 
when  we  are  absent  one  from  another.” — Gen.  xxxi.  49. 

IN  the  twenty-first  year  of  his  exile  Jacob  is  summoned 
to  return  to  the  land  of  promise.  Fourteen  of  these 
years  he  served  for  Rachel  and  the  time  seemed  short 
because  of  the  great  love  wherewith  he  loved  her.  In 
the  last  seven  years,  free  to  gather  the  earthly  goods  his 
heart  craved,  he  became  a  rich  man.  His  flocks  and 
herds  increased  so  rapidly,  almost  miraculously,  that 
Laban,  his  father-in-law,  influenced  by  the  accusations 
of  his  sons,  brothers  of  Rachel  and  Leah,  was  jealous  of 
Jacob’s  success  and  doubtful  of  his  honesty:  “And 
Jacob  beheld  the  countenance  of  Laban  that  it  was  not 
toward  him  as  before.’’  We  are  told  that  Jacob  not  only 
noticed  the  changed  demeanor  of  Laban  but  also  that  he 
“  heard  the  words  of  Laban’s  sons.  ”  Some  report  of  the 
accusations  these  young  men  were  making  was  brought 
to  Jacob’s  ears.  What  others  are  saying  of  us — how  few 
can  hear  that  with  indifference!  How  often  has  some 
such  report  determined  our  own  course  of  action! 

The  discord  about  him,  therefore,  and  the  suspicions, 
joined,  perhaps,  to  the  pricking  of  conscience  within,  led 
Jacob  to  accept  with  prompt  obedience  the  Divine  sum¬ 
mons  to  depart  and  seek  once  more  the  land  of  his  birth, 
the  land  of  promise.  As  usual,  however,  he  acts  de¬ 
liberately.  He  makes  his  plans  beforehand  and  is  ready 

109 


I  IO 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


to  take  advantage  of  every  favorable  circumstance.  So 
when  his  father-in-law  gathered  all  his  family  and  depen¬ 
dants  for  the  annual  sheep-shearing  at  a  place  three  days’ 
journey  from  Jacob’s  habitation  he  decided  that  the  time 
for  his  flight  was  at  hand.  He  placed  his  wives  and  chil¬ 
dren,  eleven  sons  and  one  daughter,  “  upon  camels,  and 
carried  away  all  his  cattle  and  all  his  goods;  and  stole 
away  unawares  to  Laban  the  Syrian.  So  he  fled  with  all 
that  he  had.”  He  took  all  that  belonged  to  him,  but 
nothing  more.  Rachel,  his  wife,  however,  without  her 
husband’s  knowledge,  “  had  stolen  the  images  that  were 
her  father’s.”  Rachel’s  theft  of  these  images  or  “  tera- 
phim,”  as  they  are  called  in  the  margin  of  our  Bible, 
shows  that  she  had  not  entirely  freed  herself  from  the 
semi-idolatrous  faith  and  practices  in  which  she  had  been 
reared.  Possibly  she  wished  to  prevent  Laban  from  dis¬ 
covering  by  the  aid  of  his  gods  the  direction  of  Jacob’s 
flight ;  probably  she  wished  to  consult  them  herself  should 
danger  come  upon  the  fugitives;  perhaps,  as  has  been 
conjectured,  she  coveted  the  silver  or  gold  of  which  the 
gods  were  made. 

For  ten  days  Jacob  has  continued  his  journey  in  safety. 
He  has  placed  at  least  three  hundred  miles  between  him¬ 
self  and  Laban.  He  is  nearing  the  borders  of  the  Holy 
Land.  Bethel,  where  twenty  years  ago  the  God  of  his 
fathers  had  spoken  to  his  soul,  is  not  far  off. 

As  he  journeyed  his  thoughts  would  range  over  the 
gracious  providences  which  had  gone  before  and  followed 
him  through  all  the  years.  He  would  perceive  that  his 
growing  riches  were  endangering  his  spiritual  life;  that 
he  had  been  doing  that  foolish  thing  most  of  us  have 
sometimes  done,  barring  God  out  of  his  life  with  God’s 
own  gifts ;  making  his  inward  life  like 


The  Pursuit. 


1 1 1 


“  The  pleached  bower 
Where  honeysuckles,  ripened  by  the  sun 
Forbid  the  sun  to  enter.” 


One  other  thought  must  have  been  often  with  Jacob 
on  his  way  to  meet  the  God  of  Bethel,  the  thought  of  his 
own  personality.  He  knew  that  he  was  the  same  man 
who  was  once  in  Bethel  long  ago ;  that  he  had  preserved 
his  identity,  had  retained  his  self-conscious  memory. 
John  Stuart  Mill  has  truly  said,  “  The  mind  might  be 
regarded  as  a  mere  series  of  feelings  .  .  .  were  it  not 

for  the  memory.”  And  so  when  Jacob  remembered  that 
twenty  years  previously  he  had  seen  the  Ladder-vision  at 
Bethel,  in  that  recollection  his  keen  intellect  would  note 
at  least  three  things:  first,  the  fact  remembered;  second, 
the  mind  which  remembered  the  fact;  and  third,  the 
certainty  that  the  mind  which  remembered  the  fact  was 
the  same  mind  as  that  which  experienced  the  fact.  The 
permanence  of  his  soul,  or  self,  his  abiding  personality, 
would  assert  itself.  He  was  the  same  man.  But  could 
that  self  be  the  body,  or  of  the  body  ?  No,  for  the 
body  changes,  and  we  have  many  bodies.  Could  it  be 
the  brain  ?  Even  the  materialists  themselves  confess  the 
impossibility  of  storing  up  the  contents  of  a  human  mem¬ 
ory,  the  record  of  all  that  has  been  seen,  heard,  felt, 
thought,  and  read,  “  in  three  pounds’  weight  of  albumin¬ 
ous  and  fatty  tissue.”  The  mind,  the  soul,  the  self,  uses 
the  body  as  its  instrument,  but  is  itself  living,  never- 
dying,  conscious  and  self-conscious  and  eternal.  As  he 
journeyed  homeward  Jacob  thought  of  these  things. 

In  the  meantime  Laban  is  in  hot  pursuit  of  the  fugitives. 
With  a  force  of  armed  men,  on  swift  dromedaries,  carry¬ 
ing  only  necessities,  on  the  tenth  day  he  overtook  Jacob’s 


I  12 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


slow-moving  company  in  Gilead.  Here,  his  prey  securely 
snared,  he  encamped  for  needed  rest.  On  the  morrow 
he  would  wreak  his  vengeance  and  recover  his  stolen 
goods  and  his  cattle.  But  that  night  the  God  of  Jacob 
visited  Laban  in  a  dream,  warning  him  that  he  must  do 
his  kinsman  no  harm ;  an  admonition  which,  with  a 
strange  mixture  of  faith  and  superstition,  he  feared  to 
disregard.  In  the  morning,  when  the  two  leaders  met, 
Laban  preferred  his  charges  against  Jacob,  and  demanded 
the  restoration  of  his  gods.  He  reminds  his  nephew  that 
he  is  in  his  power  and  informs  him  that  were  it  not  for 
his  dream  he  would  not  stand  parleying  but  at  once  pro¬ 
ceed  to  right  these  wrongs.  Jacob  replies  with  his  usual 
astuteness,  passing  lightly  but  frankly  over  the  main 
charge.  He  acknowledges  that  he  slipped  away  secretly ; 
but  this,  he  says,  was  due  to  fear — he  was  afraid  Laban 
would  not  let  him  go,  or  would  compel  him  to  leave  his 
family  and  his  goods  behind  him.  Upon  the  accusation 
of  the  theft  of  the  teraphim,  however,  in  ignorance  of 
Rachel’s  act,  he  waxes  eloquent,  denying  the  crime  and 
boldly  demanding  a  search.  The  search  begins.  Each 
tent  is  examined  without  result.  At  last  the  searchers 
reach  Rachel’s  temporary  dwelling,  where,  we  are  told, 
she  had  the  images  concealed  beneath  a  camel’s  saddle. 
If  little  Joseph,  playing  about,  had  with  sharp  eyes  dis¬ 
covered  his  mother’s  secret,  he  did  not  betray  her.  When 
the  searchers  entered,  Rachel  at  once  showed  herself  to 
be  her  father’s  daughter  and  no  novice  in  craft,  as,  with¬ 
out  the  slightest  manifestation  of  concern,  she  reclined 
upon  the  saddle  and  asked  her  father  to  excuse  her  from 
rising  to  receive  him,  as  she  was  indisposed ;  whereupon, 
after  looking  elsewhere  about  the  tent  in  vain,  Laban 
was  compelled  to  acknowledge  Jacob’s  innocence  and  to 


The  Pursuit. 


1 13 

take  a  milder  tone.  Then  Jacob,  with  growing  self- 
confidence,  indignant  at  what  he  believed  to  be  a  trumped- 
up  charge,  “  unpacks  his  heart  in  words  ”  :  “  And  Jacob 
answered  and  said  to  Laban,  What  is  my  trespass  ? 
what  is  my  sin,  that  thou  hast  so  hotly  pursued  after 
me  ?  Whereas  thou  hast  searched  all  my  stuff,  what  hast 
thou  found  ?  ”  For  “  twenty  years  have  I  been  with 
thee”  keeping  thy  flock.  “  That  which  was  torn  of 
beasts  I  brought  not  unto  thee  ”  to  escape  payment  for 
it ;  “  I  bore  the  loss  of  it ;  of  my  hand  didst  thou  require  it, 
whether  stolen  by  day,  or  stolen  by  night.  Thus  I  was; 
in  the  day  the  drought  consumed  me,  and  the  frost  by 
night ;  and  my  sleep  departed  from  mine  eyes. 

Except  the  God  of  my  father,  the  God  of  Abraham,  and 
the  fear  of  Isaac,  had  been  with  me,  surely  thou  hadst 
sent  me  away  now  empty.  God  hath  seen  mine  affliction 
and  the  labor  of  my  hands,  and  rebuked  thee  yester¬ 
night  ”  in  the  dream.  Laban  could  not  deny  the  truth 
of  this  outburst  of  natural  eloquence,  and,  softened  per¬ 
haps  by  the  sight  of  his  children  and  grandchildren, 
agreed  to  let  him  go  on  condition  that  he  should  enter 
into  a  covenant  to  deal  kindly  with  his  wives  and  children 
and  never  return  to  Padan-aram  to  trouble  him  any  more. 
So  an  altar  was  set  up,  each  swore  to  the  covenant  by  his 
God,  and  they  called  the  place  “  Mizpah  ” — “  The  Lord 
watch  between  me  and  thee  when  we  are  absent  one  from 
another.” 

To-day  let  us  meditate  upon  the  words  in  which  Jacob 
describes  his  good  care  of  Laban’s  sheep.  “  That  which 
was  torn  of  beasts  I  brought  not  to  thee;  I  bore  the  loss 
of  it;  of  my  hand  didst  thou  require  it.”  In  the  same 
way  our  Good  Shepherd  has  made  Himself  answerable 

for  us  even  when  torn  by  the  enemy.  Jacob  never 

'8 


1 14  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

wearied  in  “  the  day  the  drought  consumed  ”  him,  re¬ 
minding  us  of  Him  who  sat  down  at  Jacob’s  well  endur¬ 
ing  thirst  that  He  might  give  living  water  to  one  lost 
sheep  there,  rather  than  be  served  by  taking  the  earthly 
water  from  her  hand.  “  The  frost  ”  was  thick  upon  me 
“  by  night,”  says  Jacob,  “  and  my  sleep  departed  from 
mine  eyes;  ”  and  we  think  of  Him  who  rose  before  the 
day  to  pray,  and  who,  stripped  and  bleeding,  shivered 
with  the  cold  on  the  night  of  His  passion.  May  that 
Good  Shepherd  evermore  guard  and  bless  and  keep  us  all! 


JACOB’S  PRAYER. 


THURSDAY  AFTER  THE  THIRD  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  Deliver  me,  I  pray  thee,  from  the  hand  of  my  brother,  from  the  hand 
of  Esau  :  for  I  fear  him,  lest  he  will  come  and  smite  me,  and  the  mother 
with  the  children.” — Gen.  xxxii.  II. 

HE  thirty-second  chapter  of  Genesis  is  one  of  the 


1  great  chapters  in  the  life  of  the  patriarch  Jacob. 
It  gives  us  Mahanaim,  Jabbok,  and  Peniel,  the  angel 
host,  the  prayer  by  the  fords,  and  the  wrestling  with  the 
Nameless  One  in  the  night.  Jacob’s  temporal  as  well  as 
his  spiritual  history  here  begins  anew.  His  prayer,  from 
which  the  text  is  taken,  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  and 
helpful  passages  in  the  Bible.  To-day  let  us  consider  the 
events  which  preceded  and  called  forth  his  prayer,  and 
then  hear  the  prayer  itself. 

i.  After  an  exile  of  twenty  years  Jacob  is  returning  to 
the  land  of  promise.  He  left  home  with  nothing  but 
his  staff  in  his  hand ;  fourteen  years  he  served  for  Rachel ; 
then  he  made  a  bargain  with  Laban,  his  father-in-law,  to 
work  for  a  certain  portion  of  the  profits;  and  in  these 
last  years  he  accumulated  a  fortune  and  “  increased  ex¬ 
ceedingly  and  had  much  cattle,  and  maidservants,  and 
menservants,  and  camels  and  asses.”  But  while  he  grew 
rich  in  worldly  goods  his  spiritual  life  declined.  His  vis¬ 
ion  at  Bethel  long  years  ago  did  not,  as  we  see,  make  him 
perfect;  his  conversion,  the  touch  of  God  upon  his  soul, 
did  not  entirely  exterminate  the  roots  of  evil  within  him. 
If  it  had  he  would  not  have  been  like  one  of  us. 


1 1 6  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

At  length  God  called  him  to  arise  and  to  return  to  his 
native  land.  In  parting  from  his  father-in-law,  which  he 
succeeded  in  doing  with  some  difficulty  and  danger, 
Jacob  left  behind  him  a  “  magnified  image  of  himself.” 
In  this  man  his  own  besetting  sin  of  guile  was  ever  before 
him  in  its  most  unlovely  aspects,  that  he  might  learn  to 
see  all  its  baseness;  and  “  the  sight  of  his  own  faults  writ 
large  in  the  coarser  texture  of  Laban’s  character  ”  seems 
to  have  been  a  living  lesson  which  was  not  set  before  him 
in  vain. 

2.  With  his  caravan  Jacob  pushed  on  to  the  southward, 
and  not  far  from  the  borders  of  the  Holy  Land  pitched 
his  camp  for  a  short  but  needed  rest.  Here  in  the  night 
a  vision  of  angels  appeared  to  him,  the  same  angels,  no 
doubt,  who  visited  him  in  his  Ladder-dream  ;  and  he  said, 
“  This  is  God’s  host,  and  he  called  the  name  of  that 
place  Mahanaim.”  Full  of  comfort  and  encouragement 
was  this  visitation,  for  it  assured  him  that  he  was  under 
the  Divine  protection,  and  that  as  he  had  just  escaped 
from  Laban  so  he  would  also  be  brought  safely  through 
the  danger  which  threatened  in  his  approaching  meeting 
with  his  brother  Esau. 

To  meet  angels  on  our  way  to  our  own  land  is  symbol¬ 
ical  of  reaching  degrees  of  holiness.  It  means  that  our 
virtues  are  revealing  themselves  to  us;  that  growth  in 
grace  is  realized  in  its  ripening.  There  are  seasons  in  the 
life  of  the  believer  when  a  discipline  which  has  been  going 
on  in  the  soul  for  a  greater  or  lesser  length  oi  time  bears 
fruit.  We  have  been  growing  better  and  better  and 
knew  it  not.  We  have  been  gaining  strength  and  only 
felt  our  weakness.  We  have  been  in  grief  and  sorrow 
and  knew  not  that  suddenly  we  were  to  find  a  light 
arising  out  of  the  darkness.  Then  in  some  hour  of 


Jacob’s  Prayer. 


ii  7 

danger,  when  some  Esau  from  out  a  long-forgotten  past 
emerges,  or  some  great  difficulty  seems  about  to  over¬ 
whelm  us,  the  power  of  good  in  the  recent  discipline  of 
events  gathers  up  its  strength,  and  lo  !  we  behold  in  it 
an  angel.  It  trembles  into  visibility.  It  takes  on  the 
smile  of  the  morning.  It  points  and  beckons  heaven¬ 
ward.  It  holds  on  high  the  shield  of  our  defence.  It 
sweeps  the  chilly  earth  with  its  warm  and  roseate  wings. 
We  are  consoled;  we  are  visited  with  comforts  from 
above.  We  lift  up  our  hearts  and  say,  “  This  is  God’s 
host.  In  God  will  I  rejoice ;  yea  in  God’s  word  will  I  com¬ 
fort  me.”  We  are  continually  growing  better  if  we  are 
religious;  if  we  live  lives  of  faith  and  prayer;  if  we  dwell 
in  Christ  and  Christ  dwells  in  us;  if  we  daily  endeavor  our¬ 
selves  to  follow  the  blessed  steps  of  His  most  holy  life. 
The  discipline  of  a  well-kept  Lent  may  reveal  itself  thus 
to  us  in  the  near  future,  and  growth  in  grace  be  realized 
in  its  ripening. 

3.  As  we  go  on  with  the  story  we  see  that  a  man  who 
has  learned  to  pray  is  equal  to  any  emergency  which  can 
possibly  arise.  The  messengers  Jacob  has  sent  forward 
return  with  the  report  that  from  the  tents  of  Esau  four 
hundred  armed  men  are  advancing.  The  crisis  is  upon 
him.  The  great  sin  of  his  youth,  the  sin  of  deceiving  his 
father  and  cheating  his  brother,  will  not  down;  it  has 
dogged  him  all  his  life;  and  now  Jacob  must  meet  it 
face  to  face  and  vanquish  or  be  vanquished.  Notice  that 
he  does  not  lose  his  self-possession.  When  these  evil 
tidings  fall  upon  him  his  heart  standeth  fast.  His  keen 
mind  at  once  recognizes  the  hopelessness  either  of  retreat 
or  of  resistance,  and  so  he  calls  upon  his  God.  But  he 
thinks  and  acts  as  well  as  prays. 

In  the  first  place  he  sends  his  brother  a  message  of 


1 1 8  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

kindness  and  peace.  Then  he  sends  him  valuable  pre¬ 
sents,  anticipating  the  wisdom  of  Solomon  that  “  a  man’s 
gift  maketh  room  for  himself”  and  “  pacifieth  anger.” 
Then  he  follows  kindness  with  prudence,  dividing  his 
company  into  two  bands,  with  the  hope  that  if  worse 
comes  to  worst  one  band  at  least  in  the  darkness  and 
confusion  may  escape  the  fury  of  the  avenger.  Having 
exhausted  his  own  resources  Jacob  leaves  the  issue  with 
God.  In  his  behavior  at  this  time  he  sets  us  an  excellent 
example.  This  truly  religious  man  is  no  fanatic.  He 
prays,  and  his  prayer  is  a  perfect  model  of  supplication ; 
but  he  also  thinks  and  acts.  He  does  not  imagine  that 
prayer  can  take  the  place  of  prudence  any  more  than 
that  prudence  can  take  the  place  of  prayer.  He  gives  no 
encouragement  to  those  who  in  sickness  reject  physicians 
and  medicine  and  rely  upon  faith  alone.  Notice,  too, 
that  he  does  not  ask  or  expect  God  to  deliver  him  by  de¬ 
stroying  Esau  and  his  men;  he  asks  only  for  some  pro¬ 
vidential  stirring  of  better  memories  or  better  thoughts 
which  may  turn  his  brother  from  his  evil  purpose.  And 
so  in  this  story  of  Jacob’s  danger  we  find  working  together 
to  a  happy  end  kindness,  prudence,  and  prayer.  Let  us 
mark  the  value  of  the  three  working  together;  for  if  in 
all  our  difficulties,  trials,  and  misunderstandings  with 
others,  we  also  exercise  the  three,  we  shall  usually  find  a 
happy  issue  out  of  all. 

4.  This  leads  on  to  the  words  of  Jacob’s  prayer.  A 
prayer,  “  the  combined  beauty  and  power,  humility  and 
boldness,  brevity  and  comprehensiveness  of  which  ”  has 
been  universally  recognized.  ”  And  Jacob  said,  O  God 
of  my  father  Abraham,  and  God  of  my  father  Isaac,  the 
Lord  which  saidst  unto  me,  Return  unto  thy  country,  and 
to  thy  kindred,  and  I  will  deal  well  with  thee :  I  am  not 


Jacob’s  Prayer. 


u9 

worthy  of  the  least  of  all  the  mercies,  and  of  all  the  truth, 
which  thou  hast  shewed  unto  Thy  servant;  for  with  my 
staff  I  passed  over  this  Jordan;  and  now  I  am  become 
two  bands.  Deliver  me,  I  pray  Thee,  from  the  hand  of 
my  brother,  from  the  hand  of  Esau :  for  I  fear  him,  lest 
he  will  come  and  smite  me,  and  the  mother  with  the 
children.  And  Thou  saidst,  I  will  surely  do  thee  good, 
and  make  thy  seed  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  which  cannot 
be  numbered  for  multitude.”  And  Jacob’s  prayer  was 
answered.  God  appeased  Esau.  The  next  morning 
when  Esau  awoke,  lo !  his  purpose  of  revenge  had  van¬ 
ished. 

“  Call  upon  Me  in  the  day  of  trouble  and  I  will  deliver 
thee.”  These  words  stand  verified  by  the  experience  of 
believers  in  every  age  and  race  and  circumstance.  Have 
we  been  taught  the  power  of  prevailing  prayer  ?  Do  we 
know  from  a  blessed  personal  experience  that  we  have  a 
prayer-hearing  and  a  prayer-answering  God  ?  Have  we 
learned  the  lesson  which  holy  men  in  all  ages  in  nearly 
the  same  words  have  so  urgently  impressed  upon  us  : 
that  prayer  is  not  conquering  God’s  reluctance,  but  tak¬ 
ing  hold  upon  God’s  willingness  ?  If  we  have  made  such 
blessed  certainties  our  own,  we  may  confidently  meet 
all  the  changes  and  chances  of  this  mortal  life,  resting 
upon  the  great  facts  of  Revelation  and  experience  to 
which  Browning  has  testified  in  two  lines, — 


“  The  work  began  when  first  your  prayer  was  uttered, 

And  God  will  finish  what  He  has  begun.” 

It  is  true  there  are  difficulties  in  prayer,  that  objections 
are  made  to  prayer.  But  one  of  the  best  answers  to  all  ob¬ 
jections  is  that  the  human  heart  must  pray — cannot  help 
praying;  and  that,  therefore,  that  which  is  so  spontaneous 


I  20 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


and  truly  natural  is  implanted  by  the  Creator  and  must 
have  its  normal  and  lawful  exercise  according  to  His  will. 
Abraham  Lincoln  once  said,  “  I  have  been  driven  many 
times  to  my  knees  by  the  overwhelming  conviction  that 
I  had  nowhere  else  to  go.  My  own  wisdom,  and  that 
of  all  about  me,  seemed  insufficient  for  the  day.” 
“  And,”  writes  St.  John,  “  this  is  the  confidence  that 
we  have  in  Him,  that  if  we  ask  anything  according  to 
His  will,  He  heareth  us;  and  if  we  know  that  He  hear- 
eth  us,  whatsoever  we  ask,  we  know  that  we  have  the 
petitions  that  we  desired  of  Him.” 


THE  MERCIES  OF  GOD. 


FRIDAY  AFTER  THE  THIRD  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  I  am  not  worthy  of  the  least  of  all  the  mercies,  and  of  all  the  truth, 
which  thou  hast  shewed  unto  thy  servant.” — Gen.  xxxii.  io. 

HESE  are  among  the  opening  words  of  Jacob’s  great 


1  prayer.  His  brother  Esau  is  advancing  against  him 
with  four  hundred  armed  men.  Jacob  has  put  his  mind 
to  the  task  of  saving  himself.  He  has  thought  out  the 
problem  and  has  acted  upon  his  thoughts.  He  can  do 
no  more;  and  so,  as  the  shadows  of  the  Eastern  night 
begin  to  fall,  he  retires  to  a  solitary  spot  near  the  ford  of 
the  river  Jabbok,  and  there  he  calls  upon  his  God.  This 
beautiful  prayer  has  furnished  themes  for  many  sermons 
and  is  rich  in  spiritual  lessons. 

i.  In  the  first  place  it  is  the  prayer  of  humility.  “  I 
am  not  worthy  of  the  least  of  all  Thy  mercies.”  In  the 
attitude  of  humility  alone  can  the  creature  consistently 
approach  the  Creator.  We  cannot  say,  “  I  thank  Thee 
that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are;  ”  we  cannot  use  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  merit  before  our  Maker;  the  man  who  pleads 
his  own  merit,  as  some  one  has  said,  does  not  pray,  he 
but  demands  his  due.  And  if  Jacob’s  words  are  the 
natural  expression  of  the  human  heart  in  great  distress 
or  danger,  if  self-righteousness  instantly  flees  from  our 
hearts  and  lips  when  the  ship  is  sinking,  when  the  loved 
one  lies  in  the  clutch  of  some  disease,  then,  surely,  it  is 
equally  out  of  place  in  all  real  prayer.  As  St.  Augustine 


121 


122 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


has  said,  “  The  sufficiency  of  my  merit  is  to  know  that 
my  merit  is  not  sufficient/’ 

Notice,  also,  that  Jacob  uses  the  present  tense,  “  I  am 
not  worthy  of  the  least  of  all  Thy  mercies  and  Thy  truth ;  ” 
literally,  “  I  am  less  than  them  all.”  He  does  not  say,  as 
we  sometimes  do,  “  O  Lord,  I  was  a  miserable  sinner, 
when  I  was  young,  when  I  fell  from  grace,  when  I  met  that 
great  temptation  few  could  have  withstood.”  He  does 
not  say,  ”  I  was  unworthy  when  I  cheated  Esau  twenty 
years  ago;  I  was  not  strictly  honest  in  my  dealings  with 
Laban  seven  years  ago.”  No,  he  brings  his  confession 
down  to  date:  “  I  am  in  the  prime  of  life,  I  am  rich  and 
great,  but  I  am  not  worthy  of  the  least  of  all  Thy  mercies.” 
Humility  is  not  only  an  essential  quality  in  all  real 
prayer;  it  is  also  an  integral  part  of  Christian  character 
itself.  And  yet  so  delicate  a  thing  is  this  grace  that  it  is 
scarcely  safe  even  to  be  conscious  of  it,  and  the  moment 
we  speak  of  our  own  humility  we  cease  to  be  humble. 
And  so  subtle  a  sin  is  spiritual  pride  that  it  often  leads 
us  to  deceive  ourselves  and  to  attempt  to  deceive  others. 
Coleridge,  who  frequently  went  to  the  root  of  things,  was 
not  far  wrong  when  he  said : 

“  And  the  devil  did  grin, 

For  his  darling  sin  is  pride  that  apes  humility.” 

Humility  seems  to  be,  furthermore,  a  plant  of  slow 
growth.  In  this  age  and  in  this  country  it  will  be  safe 
to  say  that  it  is  not  conspicuous  in  the  words  and  ways  of 
the  young.  Many  an  upstart  youth  is  wiser  than  the 
Creeds  and  has  outgrown  the  “  literature  ”  of  the  Testa¬ 
ments.  The  social  decencies  and  usages  and  laws  which 
have  been  formulated  by  the  wisdom  and  experience  of 
his  fathers  are  irksome.  But  a  right  estimate  of  our- 


The  Mercies  of  God. 


123 


selves,  and  some  knowledge  of  the  mercies  and  the  truth 
of  God,  teach  humility.  Years  of  prayer  also  humble 
the  soul.  When  the  wheat  is  young  it  lifts  up  its  head ; 
when  it  is  nearly  ripe  it  bows  and  bends  lower  than  when 
it  was  green.  Only  out  of  a  lifelong  Christian  experi¬ 
ence  can  any  of  us  say  with  perfect  sincerity  in  the  day 
of  safety  and  success,  “  I  am  not  worthy  of  the  least  of 
all  the  mercies  of  God.” 

2.  Again,  this  is  the  prayer  of  faith.  Jacob  does  not 
address  a  stranger,  or  an  impersonal  force,  or  a  tendency, 
or  a  law.  He  calls  upon  the  living,  loving  God,  who  is 
his  God,  whom  he  knows,  who  knows  him.  “  O  God 
of  my  father  Abraham,  and  God  of  my  father  Isaac,  the 
Lord.”  He  appeals  to  the  God  of  the  Covenant,  the 
Deity  who  had  blessed  his  father  and  his  grandfather, 
enriching  them  with  precious  promises  which  he  had  in¬ 
herited,  and  who  had  personally  touched  his  own  soul 
and  spoken  to  him  in  promise  and  command.  “  O  God  of 
my  father  Abraham,  and  God  of  my  father  Isaac.”  Can 
you  say  that  ?  O  God  of  my  father.”  “My  father’s 
God  art  Thou.”  If  you  know  that,  if  your  father’s  pray¬ 
ers  have  gone  before  you,  let  them  be  followed  by  your 
own.  “  Thine  own  and  thy  father’s  friend,  forsake 
not.”  And  what  an  argument  is  this  to  lead  parents  to 
become  consistent  communicants  of  the  Church !  If  it 
be  true,  as  it  is,  that  we  never  quite  know  what  our 
parents’  hearts  felt  for  us  till  we  become  parents  our¬ 
selves,  that  when  we  first  hold  our  own  child  in  our  arms 
God  opens  the  doors  of  the  past  and  reveals  to  us  the 
sacredness  and  the  mystery  of  our  own  father’s  and 
mother’s  love  for  us — if  this  be  true,  is  it  not  also  true 
that  if  we  know  our  parents  loved  us  in  the  Lord,  dedi¬ 
cated  us  in  prayer  to  Him  who  gave  the  gift,  such 


124 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


knowledge  must  ever  be  the  strongest  of  those  “  gold 
chains  ”  which  knit  us  to  the  throne  of  God  ?  If  you 
have  taught  your  children  to  pray  and  prayed  with  and 
for  them,  if  they  have  seen  you  kneel  before  the  Sacra¬ 
ment  of  Jesus’s  love,  be  assured,  whatever  else  they  for¬ 
get,  they  will  never  forget  that.  Will  you  not  make  it 
possible  for  those  you  love  to  say  in  the  dark  day — and 
the  dark  day  will  come  for  them  ;  you  cannot  keep  it  from 
them — will  you  not  by  your  faith  and  practice  make  it 
possible  for  them  to  exclaim  in  the  season  of  temptation 
and  sorrow  and  despair,  “  O  God  of  my  father,  O  God 
of  my  mother,  you  helped  him  in  that  day  when  there 
was  no  help  to  be  found  in  man,  you  strengthened  her 
in  her  hour  of  anguish,  O  help  me!  ” 

Notice,  too,  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  the  prayer 
which  springs  from  faith.  Short,  direct,  artless,  a  con¬ 
fiding  child  might  have  uttered  it  to  an  earthly  parent  to 
whom  it  had  fled  for  refuge.  “  Deliver  me,  I  pray  Thee, 
from  the  hand  of  Esau,  for  I  fear  him,  lest  he  will  come 

and  smite  me.”  And  in  these  childlike  words  we  meet 

« 

one  of  the  deep  things  of  human  life — fear  and  faith 
joined  together;  and,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  the 
two  contradictory  feelings  experienced  at  one  and  the 
same  time;  fear  for  the  future  and  faith  in  God — the 
same  thought  to  which  David  gives  utterance  when  he 
cries,  “  What  time  I  am  afraid  I  will  trust  in  Thee.” 

And  such,”  as  Robertson  has  said,  ”  our  Christian 
life  must  ever  be;  not  an  entire  life  of  rest,  for  we  have 
sinned;  nor  an  entire  life  of  unrest,  for  God  has  for¬ 
given  us;  but  in  all  life  a  mixture  of  the  two.  Christ 
alone  had  perfect  tranquillity,  for  He  alone  had  perfect 
purity.” 

3.  Again,  Jacob  pleads  the  promises. 


“  ‘  Thou  saidst, 


The  Mercies  of  God. 


125 


I  will  deal  well  with  thee ;  Thou  saidst,  I  will  surely  do 
thee  good,  and  make  thy  seed  as  the  sand  of  the  sea.’ 
If  Esau  slay  my  children  that  promise  fails.  These 
promises  were  made  at  Bethel  and  Jacob  boldly  and 
fervently  reminds  the  Promiser  of  His  pledged  word. 
The  prophet  Isaiah  represents  God  as  saying  to  His 
people,  “  ‘  Put  Me  in  remembrance  ’  of  My  promises  and 
call  upon  Me.”  And  so  when  Jacob  pleads  the  promises 
his  feet  are  on  the  rock, — “  Thou  saidst.”  ”  Thou  hast 
promised.”  To  learn  the  promises  of  Holy  Scripture  is 
therefore  an  essential  part  of  the  education  of  a  Christ¬ 
ian.  God’s  pledged  word  He  will  make  good,  for  it  is 
impossible  for  Him  to  lie.  And  when  we  can  take  a 
promise,  as  Jacob  did,  and  turn  it  into  a  prayer,  we  also 
shall  lay  hold  upon  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob.  Thou 
hast  said,  “  Ask  and  ye  shall  receive;  seek  and  ye  shall 
find;  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.”  Lord,  I 
ask;  I  seek;  I  knock!  Thou  hast  said,  “  A  clean  heart 
will  I  give  thee,  and  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within  thee.” 
Create  in  me,  O  God,  a  clean  heart,  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  me!  Thou  hast  said,  ”  Call  upon  Me  in  the 
day  of  trouble  and  I  will  deliver  thee.”  I,  this  day,  O 
blessed  Lord,  am  in  trouble;  deliver  me  from  it,  and 
sanctify  it  to  my  soul’s  good  that  I  too  may  say,  “  It  is 
good  for  me  that  I  have  been  in  trouble;  before  I  was 
troubled  I  went  wrong,  but  now  have  I  kept  Thy 
word !  ” 

Let  us,  in  humility  and  in  faith,  pleading  the  promises, 
freely  also  open  our  hearts  to  our  Heavenly  Father,  tell¬ 
ing  out  to  Him  all  our  sorrows,  fears,  and  dangers,  and 
we  shall  be  heard  and  answered  and  delivered  as  Jacob 
was  of  old.  Can  we  doubt  it  ?  Shall  we  be  surprised 
that  God  keeps  His  word  ? 


126 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 

“  I  stood  amazed,  and  whispered,  Can  it  be 
That  He  hath  granted  all  the  boon  I  sought  ? 

How  wonderful  that  He  hath  answered  me  ! 

O  faithless  heart  !  He  said  that  He  would  hear 
And  answer  thy  poor  prayer  ;  and  He  hath  heard, 

And  proved  His  promise  !  Wherefore  didst  thou  fear? 
Why  marvel  that  the  Lord  hath  kept  His  word  ? 

More  wonderful  if  He  should  fail  to  bless 
Expectant  faith  and  prayer  with  good  success  !  ” 


TWO  BANDS. 


SATURDAY  AFTER  THE  THIRD  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“With  my  staff  I  passed  over  this  Jordan  ;  and  now  I  am  become  two 
bands.” — Gen.  xxxii.  io. 

IT  is  a  true  saying  that  “  a  grateful  thought  towards 
heaven  is  of  itself  a  prayer.”  While  earnestly  pray¬ 
ing  God  to  save  his  life,  his  goods,  and  his  family  from 
the  avenging  hand  of  Esau,  Jacob  yields  to  a  mood  of 
thanksgiving  which  graciously  sweeps  down  upon  his 
heart.  His  own  sin  and  unworthiness  have  been  con¬ 
fessed — “  I  am  not  worthy  of  the  least  of  all  the  mercies 
and  of  all  the  truth  which  Thou  hast  shewed  unto  Thy 
servant ;  ”  now  he  will  dwell  upon  the  plenteousness  of 
these  mercies  which  he  has  received — “All  Thy  mercies.” 
Let  me,  said  Jacob,  count  them  up,  year  by  year,  and 
realize  how  great  and  how  free  these  mercies  have  been. 
Doubtless,  too,  his  sense  of  the  preciousness  of  God’s 
gifts  is  quickened  by  his  immediate  danger  of  losing  them 
all.  It  is  often  so  with  us.  While  our  mercies  are  as¬ 
suredly  ours  we  are  careless  about  them ;  when  they 
spread  their  wings  to  take  their  flight  from  us  we  awake 
to  their  value. 

While  thus  meditating  upon  all  the  gracious  loving¬ 
kindnesses  of  the  Lord  through  the  whole  course  of  his 
life,  his  eye  falls  upon  the  staff  in  his  hand.  “  ‘  With 
this  staff,’  he  exclaims,  *  I  passed  over  Jordan,’  when  I 
was  a  poor  boy  leaving  home  to  make  my  way  in  the 
world.  Then  I  was  all  alone,  no  servants,  no  changes  of 


127 


128 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


raiment,  no  bags  full  of  silver  and  gold,  wifeless  and 
childless,  this  staff  was  all  I  had ;  and  now  once  more  I 
stand  by  the  rolling  Jordan,  this  time  on  my  way  home, 
home  to  my  native  land,  home  to  the  scenes  of  my  child¬ 
hood  ;  now  I  am  rich,  my  name  is  great,  my  family  and 
my  flocks  are  sufficient  to  form  two  bands!  I  have 
divided  my  family  and  possessions  into  two  companies 
and  sent  them  forward  by  different  roads  in  the  hope 
that  one  band  in  the  darkness  may  escape  the  fury  of  the 
avenger.  Should  one  band  be  destroyed  (which  God 
forbid !)  I  should  still  be  the  head  of  a  great  caravan,  rich 
and  blessed  beyond  any  man  in  the  land;  —  and  once  I 
stood  by  this  Jordan  a  penniless  youth  with  nothing  save 
this  staff  in  my  hand!  ” 

Jacob  here  sets  an  excellent  example.  Too  many  of  us 
forget  the  staff  with  which  we  passed  over  Jordan.  In  our 
American  life  the  greater  part  of  our  successful  and  well- 
to-do  people  can  look  back  upon  days  of  youthful  poverty 
or  struggle.  Too  often,  however,  they  fail  to  see  the  past 
as  Jacob  saw  it.  Sometimes  there  is  the  blush  of  shame 
at  the  recollection  of  the  narrow  street,  the  farmhouse 
home,  the  menial  tasks,  the  humble  friends;  sometimes 
there  is  the  proud  boast,  “  I  began  with  nothing  and  my 
power  and  the  mightiness  of  mine  hand  have  gotten  me 
this  wealth.”  Jacob,  on  the  contrary,  acknowledges  the 
truth:  once  he  was  poor  and  friendless;  now  through 
the  undeserved  mercies  of  God  he  is  rich  and  great ;  he 
has  become  two  bands.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  even  the 
best  of  us  are  lacking  in  thankfulness  as  well  as  in  the  ex¬ 
pression  of  our  thanks  to  God  in  prayer.  Yet  God  expects 
our  thanksgiving  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  delights  in 
our  poor  expressions  of  gratitude.  “  Whoso  offereth  Me 
thanks  and  praise,  he  honoreth  Me.”  “  In  everything 


Two  Bands. 


129 


give  thanks:  for  this  is  the  will  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus 
concerning  you.”  But  murmurs  rather  than  thanks  are 
on  our  lips.  Thanksgiving  has  no  place  even  in  the 
prayers  we  teach  our  children.  Nevertheless  we  have 
much  to  be  thankful  for.  Health  and  happiness,  length 
of  days,  providential  ordering  of  circumstances,  our  good 
name,  our  hereditary  culture,  our  substance,  our  family, 
our  Christian  hope,  the  grace  which  maketh  us  to  differ 
from  another — a  little  reflection  must  bring  us  to  the 
grateful  realization  of  the  fact  that  these,  one  and  all,  are 
the  free  and  undeserved  mercies  of  God. 

It  is  told  us  as  a  proof  of  Jacob’s  gratitude  that  he 
never  parted  with  his  staff,  that  he  leaned  upon  it  when 
he  was  a-dying,  and  blessed  the  two  sons  of  Joseph,  and 
that  it  went  with  him  into  his  grave.  Some  of  us  may 
know  from  personal  experience  how  Jacob  looked  upon 
that  staff.  It  may  be  that  we  too  have  some  like  posses¬ 
sion  which  money  could  not  buy  because  we  associate  it 
with  some  turning-point  in  our  own  early  life.  Many  of 
us,  surely,  in  the  confidence  that  goodness  and  mercy  have 
followed  us  all  the  days  of  our  life  can  look  forward  in 
the  certain  faith  that  there  are  abundant  mercies  yet  to 
come. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible,  only  too  possible, 
that  some  one  may  say,  “  At  certain  seasons  I  have  felt 
thankful  to  God  for  His  blessings;  I  have  been  grateful 
to  kind  friends  and  relatives  for  favors  bestowed  upon 
me ;  yet,  on  the  whole,  as  I  review  the  past  and  forecast 
the  future,  I  cannot  see  that  I  have  any  special  reason 
for  thanksgiving.  There  are  many  around  me  who  have 
received  rich  and  precious  gifts,  who  seem  to  be  favorites 
of  Heaven.  For  my  part  I  cannot  honestly  declare  with 
the  Psalmist,  ‘  My  cup  runneth  over.’  ”  To  such  we  may 


130 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


reply  in  the  eloquent  words  of  a  well-known  American 
preacher:  “  If  one  should  give  me  a  dish  of  sand,  and 
tell  me  there  were  particles  of  iron  in  it,  I  might  look  for 
them  with  my  eyes,  and  search  for  them  with  my  clumsy 
fingers,  and  be  unable  to  detect  them ;  but  let  me  take  a 
magnet  and  sweep  through  it,  and  how  it  would  draw  to 
itself  the  almost  invisible  particles  by  the  mere  power  of 
attraction !  The  unthankful  heart,  like  my  finger  in  the 
sand,  discovers  no  mercies;  but  let  the  thankful  heart 
sweep  through  the  day,  and  as  the  magnet  finds  the  iron 
so  it  will  find,  in  every  hour,  some  heavenly  blessings; 
only  the  iron  in  God’s  sand  is  gold.” 

Yes,  the  gold  of  heavenly  blessings  unnumbered  is  to 
be  found  by  every  thankful  heart.  And  one  way  to  at¬ 
tain  this  thankful  heart  is  to  compare  what  God  gives  us 
with  what  we  deserve.  To  remember  that  in  Him  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being,  that  we  cannot  deny 
that  we  have  more  than  we  actually  need,  that  if  we  are 
not  worthy  of  the  least  of  all  the  mercy  and  all  the  truth 
which  God  has  bestowed  upon  us  —  how  much  more  are 
we  unworthy  of  all  the  mercy  and  of  all  the  truth  which 
He  has  shown  us  in  the  life,  death,  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  For,  all  earthly  benefits,  life, 
health,  food,  raiment,  reason,  are  simply  shadows  and 
types  of  that  great  mercy  and  truth  revealed  to  us  in  the 
Church’s  Divine  Head,  in  whom  and  through  whom  we 
have  the  means  of  grace  and  the  hope  of  glory. 

Another  method  of  attaining  a  thankful  heart  is  to 
think  and  to  speak  often  of  the  goodness  of  God.  The 
thought  framed  in  words  addressed  to  God  and  men  will 
strengthen  and  increase  the  feeling  in  our  hearts.  It  is 
significant  that  the  great  poet  of  our  language  so  fre¬ 
quently  teaches  this  truth.  “  God’s  goodness  hath 


Two  Bands. 


131 

been  great  to  thee,”  he  says,  “  let  never  day  nor  night 
unhallowed  pass,  but  still  remember  what  the  Lord  hath 
done.”  Again,  he  addresses  the  Giver  of  all  good  gifts: 
“  O  Lord,  who  lendest  me  life,  lend  me  a  heart  replete 
with  thankfulness.”  And  again,  we  have  the  beautiful 
words:  44  Or  any  ill  escaped,  or  good  attained,  let  us 
remember  still,  Heaven  chalked  the  way  that  brought  us 
thither.”  That  was  Jacob’s  consolation.  He  knew 
“  Heaven  had  chalked  the  way  ”  he  had  journeyed  from 
Jordan  back  to  Jordan  once  more,  and  would  still  lead 
him  on.  Such  grateful  confidence  should  be  our 
own. 

But  in  the  words  of  the  text,  44  I  am  become  two 
bands,”  there  is  another  lesson  which  must  at  least  be 
mentioned.  Our  Lord  by  His  baptism  in  this  same  river 
Jordan  sanctified  water  to  the  mystical  washing  away  of 
sin ;  therefore  those  who  have  been  made  members  of  His 
body  in  that  sacrament  of  regeneration  can  say, 4  4  With  my 
staff,  with  what  were  only  the  natural  gifts  of  conscience 
and  the  works  of  the  natural  man,  I  passed  over  the 
waves  of  my  baptism ;  and  now  I  am  become  two  bands 
— I  have  that  godliness  which  has  promise  of  the  life 
that  now  is  and  also  of  that  which  is  to  come.” 

We  are  told,  furthermore,  that  Jacob’s  family  was  in 
two  separate  bands.  So  is  ours.  Some  are  in  Paradise, 
some  on  earth;  but  in  the  blessed  communion  of  saints 
one  family  still.  Of  the  faithful  departed  the  Christian 
heart  may  say,  “  We  see  not  the  glorious  faces  of  those 
who  are  now  walking  before  Him  in  the  land  of  the 
living;  but  it  is  a  joy  to  know  that  they  are  sometimes 
turned  towards  us.  We  cannot  hear  the  voices  which 
sound  in  that  distant  land,  celebrating  the  praise  of  God; 
but  it  is  a  comfort  to  know  that  among  those  utterances 


132 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


are  prayers  for  us  who  are  still  in  our  pilgrimage  and  who 
serve  as  yet  by  faith. ”  They  do  not  forget  us.  Let  us 
keep  warm  our  love  for  them  and  strive  to  follow  their 
good  examples. 

So,  too,  one  day,  every  one  of  us  will  in  another  sense 
become  two  bands.  The  soul  will  be  separated  from  the 
body.  But  they  will  be  reunited  again  beyond  Jordan 
as  were  the  two  bands  of  Jacob  of  old. 

Thus  all  our  Christian  hopes  are  centred  in  Christ. 
Temporal  blessings,  spiritual  gifts,  heavenly  promises, 
come  alike  from  Him,  to  whom  be  praise,  and  thanks¬ 
giving,  and  dominion,  forever  and  ever ! 


GOD  WRESTLING  WITH  JACOB. 


MONDAY  AFTER  THE  FOURTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  Jacob  was  left  alone;  and  there  wrestled  a  man  with  him  until 
the  breaking  of  the  day.” — Gen.  xxxii.  24. 

AT  mid-Lent  the  Church  would  seem  to  suggest  a 
change  in  the  spiritual  exercises  of  her  children. 
During  the  first  weeks  of  this  holy  season  we  were 
charged  to  give  ourselves  up  to  the  work  of  repentance, 
and  in  the  Collect  for  yesterday  we  were  taught,  as  the 
result  of  our  self-examinations,  to  acknowledge  that  for 
our  evil  deeds  we  do  worthily  deserve  to  be  punished ; 
but  the  days  that  remain  are  especially  consecrated  to 
the  remembrance  of  those  mysterious  sufferings  by  which 
the  gift  of  repentance  was  purchased  for  us.  We  are 
now  in  a  general  sense  to  turn  from  self  to  Christ.  Our 
Lord’s  wrestling  with  sin  and  death  and  with  His  own 
human  will  are  from  this  time  on  to  be  much  in  our 
thoughts. 

The  life  of  Jacob,  which  seems  specially  helpful  for 
Lenten  study,  adapts  itself,  as  we  have  divided  it,  to 
such  devout  considerations.  In  the  narrative  before  us 
we  are  to  see  this  Heel-catcher  and  Supplanter  wrestling 
long  years  between  his  love  for  self  and  his  love  for  God, 
never  since  his  Ladder-vision  failing  to  live  the  life  of 
faith  and  prayer,  yet  constantly  setting  his  affections  on 
things  below — this  man  we  are  now  to  see  turned  away 
from  earth  and  brought  face  to  face  with  God  in  a  con¬ 
flict  terminating  in  victory  for  the  best  that  was  in  him, 


133 


134  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

making  him  worthy  of  his  new  name,  Israel,  the  Prince 
of  God. 

In  his  great  prayer  he  has  confessed  his  unworthiness 
of  the  least  of  all  the  mercies  of  God,  and  now,  as  he  ap¬ 
proaches  the  Holy  Land  to  possess  it  as  the  inheritor  of 
the  promises  of  the  Covenant,  he  beseeches  Divine  pro¬ 
tection  from  the  dangers  which  confront  him.  He  fears 
his  brother  Esau,  who,  with  four  hundred  armed  men, 
threatens  his  destruction.  He  has  sent  his  family  and 
his  flocks  over  the  stream.  In  the  night,  restless  and 
sleepless,  he  wanders  along  the  banks  of  the  river  in  the 
darkness.  There  in  the  shadows  “  a  man  ”  wrestles  with 
him  through  the  night.  It  was  some  one  who  desired 
to  hold  him  back  from  entering  upon  the  inheritance. 
Jacob  put  forth  all  his  strength,  but  the  vigorous  muscles 
which  once  lifted  the  great  stone  from  the  well’s  mouth 
in  order  that  Rachel’s  sheep  might  drink  found  their 
match  in  his  unknown  antagonist.  He  seeks  in  vain  to 
discover  the  features  of  his  foe.  A  sense  of  mystery 
begins  to  creep  upon  him.  Can  it  be  Esau’s  guardian 
angel  who  is  holding  him  back  from  the  Promised  Land  ? 
Possibly  it  is  his  own  alter  ego  in  bodily  form  grappling 
with  him  —  a  thought  likely  to  alarm  the  boldest.  But 
Jacob,  who  has  been  a  wrestler  from  the  day  of  his 
birth,  when  he  caught  his  brother  by  the  heel,  struggled 
on  “  until  the  breaking  of  the  day.”  “  And  when  he,” 
the  mysterious  adversary,  ”  saw  that  he  prevailed  not 
against  him,  he  touched  the  hollow  of  his  thigh;  and  the 
hollow  of  Jacob’s  thigh  was  out  of  joint  as  he  wrestled 
with  him.”  Instantly  Jacob  realizes  that  his  assailant 
is  Divine,  and,  ceasing  to  resist,  clings  to  the  Angel-man 
with  the  importunate  cry  of  entreaty,  “  I  will  not  let 
Thee  go  except  Thou  bless  me!  ”  The  answer  to  this 


God  Wrestling  with  Jacob. 


T35 


heartfelt  appeal  was  a  question,  “  What  is  thy  name  ?  ” 
“  And  he  said,  Jacob,”  “  The  Heel-catcher,”  ”  The 
Supplanter. ”  Then,  replied  his  Companion,  **  Thy  name 
shall  no  more  be  called  Jacob,  but  Israel —  the  princely 
wrestler  with  God- — for  as  a  prince  hast  thou  power  with 
God  and  with  man,  and  hast  prevailed.  And  He  blessed 
him  there.” 

Now,  it  is  not  necessary  to  materialize  the  old  narra¬ 
tive,  for  we  know  that  all  wrestling  which  brings  spiritual 
blessing  takes  place  in  the  human  soul.  Yet  Jacob 
speaks  of  this  superhuman  Wrestler  as  “  God,”  and  the 
blessing  he  received  came  from  God.  This  is  the  strange 
part  of  the  story.  We  are  familiar  with  the  thought  that 
a  man  must  wrestle  with  himself ;  that  the  higher  and  the 
lower  natures  in  us  contend  for  the  mastery.  We  also 
know  that  each  one  of  us  is  called  upon  to  wrestle  with 
the  world.  Rivalry  in  business,  rivalry  in  the  affections, 
adverse  circumstances,  environment,  the  course  of  events 
— each  one  of  us  who  would  maintain  a  consistent  Christ¬ 
ian  life  and  character  must  wrestle  against  the  precepts, 
the  forces,  the  vain  pomp  and  glory  of  the  world.  We 
know,  too,  that  the  Christian  is  sometimes  set  to  wrestle 
against  principalities,  against  powers,  against  the  rulers 
of  the  darkness  of  this  world,  against  spiritual  wickedness 
in  high  places,  against  the  wiles  of  the  devil.  We  all 
know  from  personal  experience  what  it  is  to  contend  with 
the  adversary  of  our  souls  who  goeth  about  as  a  roaring 
lion  seeking  whom  he  may  devour.  To  wrestle  with  the 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil  is  a  warfare  to  which  we 
are  all  called  in  our  Christian  Baptism. 

But  is  God  also  our  enemy  ?  Must  we  wrestle  against 
Him  to  save  ourselves  from  harm  ?  Does  this  passage 
teach  that  we  must  agonize  in  prayer  in  order  to  wrest 


136 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


from  unwilling  God  His  blessings  ?  No,  because  God  is 
for  us  and  not  against  us,  and  ever  more  ready  to  give 
than  we  to  ask.  It  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  all  such 
questions  to  point  out  that  it  was  not  Jacob  who  wrestled 
with  God  but  God  who  wrestled  with  Jacob.  It  was 
not  Jacob  who  wrestled  in  prayer  for  a  blessing;  it  was 
God  who  wrestled  with  Jacob  to  subdue  him  into  a  will¬ 
ingness  to  be  blessed.  Divine  Love  contended  with 
double-minded,  double-dealing  Jacob  in  order  to  win  his 
entire  trust  and  confidence.  Up  to  this  night  guile  had 
been  the  patriarch’s  rule  of  life;  cunning,  management, 
trickery,  had  been  his  chief  reliance  in  accomplishing  the 
purposes  which  his  ambition  set  before  him.  During  this 
day,  however,  he  had  made  a  resolution  of  amendment. 
When  Esau  threatened  his  destruction  he  promised  to 
relinquish  all  that  he  had  obtained  by  fraud  from  his 
brother;  he  sent  princely  presents,  addressed  messages  to 
Esau  as  “  Lord,”  thus  declaring  himself  ready  to  aban¬ 
don  all  claims  to  be  his  father’s  heir  and  head  of  the  clan. 
But  he  had  no  thought  of  resigning  his  right  to  the  spirit¬ 
ual  promise  of  the  Covenant  of  Abraham.  Probably  he 
was  perplexed  in  mind  as  to  the  separation  of  the  inter¬ 
nal  possessions  of  the  birthright,  which  included  the 
promise  of  being  the  forefather  of  the  Messiah,  from  the 
outward  privileges  and  powers  of  the  headship  of  his  tribe. 
It  may  be  that  his  weeping  and  tears  spoken  of  by  the 
prophet  Hosea  were  caused  by  difficulty  in  understand¬ 
ing  how  the  sacrifice  he  was  determined  to  make  as  an  act 
of  restitution  would  still  leave  him  in  possession  of  the 
real  and  chief  object  of  his  desire.  Probably  also  he  felt 
that  Esau’s  anger  was  all,  or  nearly  all,  that  demanded 
the  sacrifice;  that  he  secretly  hoped  by  the  keenness, 
nimbleness,  and  strength  of  his  own  trained  mental 


God  Wrestling  with  Jacob. 


137 


powers  again  to  outwit  his  dull-witted  brother  and 
somehow  place  once  more  in  his  own  hands  all  that  he 
professed  himself  ready  to  relinquish  forever.  At  any 
rate  it  is  clear  that  the  Jacob-nature,  the  deceit,  the  love 
of  money,  the  pride  of  intellect,  so  strong  in  him  always, 
though  subdued  by  grace,  was  still  predominant.  Ac¬ 
cordingly  he  was  unfit  to  enter  the  Holy  Land.  He 
must  be  made  ready  to  receive  the  blessing  prepared  for 
him.  To  break  down  forever  his  besetting  sin  the  Name¬ 
less  Wrestler  seized  upon  him,  nor  let  him  go  until, 
awakened  to  the  real  significance  of  the  contention, 
wounded  and  helpless,  Jacob  clung  to  Him  who  with¬ 
stood  him  in  love,  and  begged  the  heavenly  blessing 
upon  his  soul. 

Moses  had  a  similar  experience.  When  he  refused  to 
submit  his  sons  to  the  initiatory  rite  of  the  Old  Covenant 
he  was  stricken  down  with  illness.  Then  he  obeyed  and 
yielded  his  will  to  the  will  of  God.  Job,  too,  for  his 
self-confidence  and  self-righteousness,  was  subjected  to  a 
discipline  even  more  mysterious  than  the  wrestling  with 
Jacob.  And  in  one  way  or  another  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
striving  with  us  also  here  this  day.  A  crisis  of  which  we 
are  conscious  may  be  upon  some  of  us.  We  feel  that 
God  is  seeking  with  violence  to  crush  down  the  evil 
weeds  of  self-will  in  our  hearts,  and  self-will  is  so  dear 
that  we  struggle  on  against  the  loving  force  of  God.  But 
more  frequently,  and  especially  with  the  young,  it  is  the 
goodness  of  God  that  would  lead  us  to  repentance  and  stay 
us  from  evil.  His  striving  with  our  stubborn  wills  is  in 
the  gentle  and  gracious  ministries  of  His  Church,  in  the 
affections  of  our  homes,  in  the  blessings  of  His  providence. 
Punishment  is  “  His  strange  work.”  It  would  be  easy 
for  this  Divine  Wrestler  to  subdue  us  by  a  stroke.  But 


138  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

He  will  seek  first  and  often  to  subdue  us  by  love.  If  we 
realized  that  He  who  wrestles  with  us  is  our  best  friend, 
should  we  not  instantly  cease  our  resistance  and  cling  to 
Him  as  Jacob  did,  crying,  “  I  will  not  let  Thee  go  ex¬ 
cept  Thou  bless  me!  ”  No  sooner  is  that  prayer  uttered 
from  the  heart  than  the  blessing  comes  and  the  morning 
breaks. 


PENIEL. 


TUESDAY  AFTER  THE  FOURTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  And  Jacob  called  the  name  of  the  place  Peniel :  for  I  have  seen  God 
face  to  face.” — Gen.  xxxii.  30. 

WE  cannot  fail  to  see  a  spiritual  as  well  as  a  literal 
meaning  in  the  story  of  God’s  wrestling  with 
Jacob  at  the  fords  of  the  Jabbok.  The  writer  seems 
desirous  of  showing  us  a  parable  in  the  history.  In  the 
original  this  is  clearer  than  in  the  English  version. 
Everything  in  the  narrative  “  is  double,  like  the  swan 
and  its  shadow  on  the  lake.”  The  peculiarities  of  the 
style,  especially  its  unusual  repetitions,  can  scarcely  be 
otherwise  explained.  The  narrative  undoubtedly  bears 
evidences  of  the  fact  that  the  sacred  historian  invites  his 
readers  to  look  below  the  surface  meaning  of  his  words, 
and  would  call  attention  to  the  “ethical  crisis”  in 
Jacob’s  career  and  emphasize  the  significance  of  the  dis¬ 
closure  of  the  Divine  purposes  and  methods  here  made 
to  Jacob  and  to  all  who  walk  by  faith.  To-day  let  us 
consider  three  of  these  deeper,  spiritual  teachings  of  the 
narrative. 

1.  In  the  first  place  we  may  observe  that  the  Christian 
fathers  and  older  interpreters,  almost  without  exception, 
make  the  wrestling  Jacob  a  type  of  Christ  in  His  agony 
in  Gethsemane.  Jacob  was  alone  when  he  wrestled; 
Christ,  too,  was  alone  in  the  Garden  when  the  mysterious 
strife  came  upon  Him, — “  He  trod  the  wine-press  alone 
and  of  the  people  there  was  none  with  Him.”  Near  the 


139 


140 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


ford  of  the  Jabbok  Jacob  wrestled;  Christ  wrestled  near 
the  brook  of  Kedron.  It  was  night  when  both  endured 
the  conflict.  An  angel  blessed  Jacob ;  an  angel  strength¬ 
ened  the  Lord  in  His  agony.  We  read  that  the  hollow 
of  Jacob’s  thigh  was  out  of  joint  and  of  Christ  we  are 
told  that  all  His  bones  were  out  of  joint  when  it  pleased 
the  Lord  to  bruise  Him.  Neither  has  it  escaped  atten¬ 
tion  that  Jacob  was  touched  in  the  thigh  and  that  from 
his  loins  the  true  Israelite  was  to  descend,  who,  in  the 
fulness  of  time  should  wrestle  and  prevail  and  open  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  the  real  land  of  promise,  to  all  be¬ 
lievers.  In  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  there  was  a 
struggle,  momentary  it  may  be,  but  in  some  sense  a  real 
struggle,  between  the  human  will  in  Christ  and  the  will 
of  God.  He  desired  to  be  delivered  from  that  cup.  In 
His  conflict  there  was  bloody  sweat  and  tears  and  He 
conquered  only  as  Jacob  conquered,  by  a  submission  in 
which  He  was  enabled  to  utter  the  prayer,  “Not  My  will 
but  Thine  be  done.”  St.  Ambrose  speaks  for  all  the  early 
Church  when  he  says:  “  Because  the  faith  of  Jacob  was 
invincible,  and  his  devotion  insuperable,  therefore  God 
revealed  to  him  hidden  mysteries,  and  touched  his  thigh ; 
for  from  him  was  to  come  the  Lord  Jesus,  born  of  a  virgin 
and  co-equal  with  God  ;  through  whose  cross  and  passion 
sins  are  forgiven,  and  the  world  redeemed  ;  and  a  glorious 
resurrection  and  a  blessed  immortality  are  purchased  for 

9  9 

US. 

2.  Again,  in  Jacob’s  saying,  “  This  spot  is  Peniel  because 
here  I  have  seen  God  face  to  face,’’  we  may  read  below 
the  surface  of  the  words.  Jacob’s  conception  of  God  was 
far  short  of  that  which  has  been  revealed  to  us.  We  know 
that  God  is  Love.  You  will  remember  that  Jacob  said 
to  the  Heavenly  Wrestler,  “  Tell  me,  I  pray  Thee,  Thy 


Peniel. 


141 

name.”  “  Wherefore  dost  thou  ask  after  My  name  ?  ” 
was  the  answer  which  denied  the  request.  It  was  suffi¬ 
cient  that  Jacob  recognized  his  antagonist  as  the  God  of 
Abraham  and  of  Isaac ;  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  a 
fuller  revelation  of  the  Divine  name  and  character. 
That  revelation  we  have  received  bounteously.  We  know 
that  God’s  name  and  nature  is  Love.  And  yet  the  lov¬ 
ing-kindness  of  the  Lord  which  wrestled  with  Jacob  and 
prepared  him  for  the  blessing  and  finally  blessed  him  is 
evidence  that  God  has  not  changed  and  was  in  Himself 
of  old  what  He  is  now  and  ever  must  be.  Charles  Wes¬ 
ley  has  finely  brought  out  the  Christian  interpretation  of 
the  story  in  his  hymn : 

“  Come,  O  Thou  Traveller  unknown, 

Whom  still  I  hold,  but  cannot  see, 

My  company  before  is  gone, 

And  I  am  left  alone  with  Thee  ; 

With  Thee  all  night  I  mean  to  stay, 

And  wrestle  till  the  break  of  day. 

“  I  need  not  tell  Thee  who  I  am, 

My  misery  or  sin  declare  ; 

Thyself  hast  called  me  by  my  name  ; 

Look  on  Thy  hands  and  read  it  there  ! 

But  who,  I  ask  Thee,  who  art  Thou  ? 

Tell  me  Thy  name,  and  tell  me  now. 

“  Wilt  Thou  not  yet  to  me  reveal 
Thy  new,  unutterable  name  ? 

Tell  me,  I  still  beseech  Thee,  tell ; 

To  know  it  now  resolved  I  am  : 

Wrestling,  I  will  not  let  Thee  go 
Till  I  Thy  name,  Thy  nature  know. 


“  Yield  to  me  now,  for  I  am  weak, 

But  confident  in  self-despair  ; 
Speak  to  my  heart,  in  blessing  speak, 


142 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 

o 

Be  conquered  by  my  instant  prayer  ! 

Speak,  or  Thou  never  hence  shalt  move, 

And  tell  me  if  Thy  name  is  Love  ! 

“  My  prayer  hath  power  with  God  ;  the  grace 
Unspeakable  I  now  receive  ; 

Through  faith  I  see  Thee  face  to  face, 

I  see  Thee  face  to  face,  and  live  ; 

In  vain  I  have  not  wept  and  strove, 

Thy  nature,  and  Thy  name,  is  Love. 

“  I  know  Thee,  Saviour,  who  Thou  art, 

Jesus,  the  feeble  sinners’  friend  ! 

Nor  wilt  Thou  with  the  night  depart, 

But  stay,  and  love  me  to  the  end  ; 

Thy  mercies  never  shall  remove, 

Thy  nature,  and  Thy  name,  is  Love. 

“  Contented  now  upon  my  thigh 

I  halt,  till  life’s  short  journey  end, 

All  helplessness,  all  weakness,  I 

On  Thee  alone  for  strength  depend  ; 

Nor  have  I  power  from  Thee  to  move  ; 

Thy  nature,  and  Thy  name,  is  Love.” 

And  that  same  Divine  love,  doubt  it  not,  is  wrestling 
with  each  one  of  us  to-day.  It  resists  us,  now  with  a 
gentleness  scarcely  observable,  now  with  violence,  in 
order  to  win  our  answering  love  and  to  prepare  us  for 
blessings  already  laid  up  in  store. 

3.  Take  a  third  thought.  At  Peniel  Jacob  learned  the 
prevenient ,  the  going-before  grace  of  God.  God  stood 
before  His  servant  to  lead  him  into  the  paths  of  holiness. 
It  is  a  beautiful  thought  that  God  is  the  inspirer  of  our 
prayers,  of  our  purest  spiritual  longings,  of  all  desires  to 
conquer  self, — a  thought  full  of  strength  and  comfort,  a 
thought  to  make  us  very  glad  and  very  hopeful,  a  thought 
to  make  us  always  willing  to  follow  the  Divine  drawing 


Peniel. 


x43 


and  enter  into  the  heavenly  presence  where  we  too  may 
see  God  face  to  face.  He  knows  how  weak  and  gross  our 
apprehension  of  Him  is.  “  He  knoweth  whereof  we  are 
made.  He  remembereth  that  we  are  but  dust.”  He  sees 
how  unrefined  and  earthly  we  are  and  He  goes  before  and 
meets  us,  wrestles  with  us,  in  order  that  He  may  reveal 
Himself  to  us  and  us  to  ourselves.  When  we  are  sad, 
as  Jacob  was,  and  worn  with  care,  anxious  about  the 
morrow,  fearful  of  what  is  coming  on  the  earth,  troubled 
for  ourselves  and  ours,  our  hearts  trembling  for  the  Ark 
of  God  and  the  future  of  the  Church,  and  we  can  find  no 
consolation  in  human  companionship,  but  perceive  our¬ 
selves  to  be  drawn  away  by  invisible  hands,  then  it  is 
God — the  God  who  inspires  as  well  as  answers  the  soul’s 
needs  —  who  is  leading  us  to  a  Peniel  of  blessing.  At 
such  seasons  we  seek  God  as  “  Thirsty  lands  gasp  for  the 
golden  showers  with  outstretched  hands;  ”  we  are  lifted 
above  all  earthly  thoughts.  ‘‘Give  me  Thine  own  gift  of 
holiness,”  is  our  earnest  cry;  “make  me  like  Thyself;  cre¬ 
ate  in  me  a  new  heart  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within 
me.”  We  come  before  God  as  Jacob  came,  with  a 
bounded  vision  ;  we  go  from  Him  with  our  horizon  widen¬ 
ing  with  the  day.  We  take  on  something  of  the  free¬ 
dom  and  calmness  and  patience  and  peace  of  the  matured 
spiritual  state.  We  too  can  say  as  we  come  out  from  these 
Peniels  of  conflict,  “  I  have  seen  God  face  to  face  and  my 
life  is  preserved.” 

Let  us  remember  the  three  suggestions  brought  before 
us  this  day.  At  Peniel  we  see  in  wrestling  Jacob  a  figure 
of  the  Lord  in  His  agony  in  Gethsemane  saying,  “  Thy 
will  be  done;”  in  God’s  conflict  with  Jacob  we  learn 
that  the  name  and  nature  of  the  Divine  Wrestler  is  Love ; 
and  from  the  fact  that  God  went  before  His  servant, 


144 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


called  him  to  the  contest,  came  to  him,  and  prepared 
him  even  at  the  cost  of  wounds  for  higher  blessings,  we 
are  taught  the  going-before  of  the  grace  of  God  who  is 
the  inspirer  of  all  advances  in  holiness,  who  worketh  in  us 
both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure. 

Yes,  the  grace  of  the  God  who  loves  us  will  go  before 
us  through  the  long  night  of  our  wrestling,  will  ever  keep 
us  wakeful  and  watchful,  will  ever  inspire  and  quicken 
our  souls  to  renounce  the  evil  and  choose  the  good,  even 
by  healing  bruises,  until  the  day  break  and  the  shadows 
flee  away. 


THE  PRINCE  OF  GOD. 


WEDNESDAY  AFTER  THE  FOURTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  Thy  name  shall  be  called  no  more  Jacob,  but  Israel  :  for  as  a  prince 
hast  thou  power  with  God  and  with  men,  and  hast  prevailed.” — Gen. 
xxxii.  28. 

THE  spiritual  experience  related  in  this  chapter  has 
sometimes  been  called  Jacob’s  conversion.  But 
Jacob  was  converted  in  his  youth  at  Bethel.  At  Bethel 
God  first  touched  his  heart  in  the  vision  of  the  ladder 
let  down  from  heaven  to  earth.  There  Jacob  chose  God 
and  the  service  of  God,  dedicating  his  life  to  Him  who 
thus  revealed  the  heavenly  world  to  His  servant’s  ador¬ 
ing  faith.  The  present  crisis  in  his  career,  wherein  he 
received  his  new  name,  belongs  to  the  experiences  of  the 
maturer  believer.  As  the  spiritual  life  advances  and  the 
years  pass,  the  child  of  God  usually  comes  to  some  such 
second  marked  parting  of  the  ways.  The  experience  of 
God’s  people  of  old  finds  its  analogy  in  the  spiritual  life, 
as  has  frequently  been  pointed  out;  and  some  years  of 
desert  wandering  usually  intervene  between  the  Passover, 
with  its  deliverance  from  the  oppressor,  and  the  passage 
over  Jordan  into  the  happy  confidence  of  assured 
possession. 

At  Bethel  long  years  ago  Jacob  saw  the  Ladder-vision 
and  became  a  religious  man.  He  believed  in  the  things 
above  his  head.  He  put  his  trust  in  God.  But  he  also 
believed  in  himself ;  he  thought  of  God,  for  the  most 
part,  as  One  who  could  protect  him  from  his  foes  and 


146 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


help  him  to  gain  the  earthly  riches  he  coveted.  Up  to 
this  time  he  was  Jacob,  the  Heel-catcher,  the  Supplanter, 
the  master  of  guile  in  all  its  forms,  who  always  met  men 
from  whom  advantage  might  be  taken  with  the  confidence 
of  a  superior  intellect,  vigorous  in  astuteness,  unscrupu¬ 
lous  in  duplicity.  He  has  not  been  permitted,  it  is  true, 
to  remain  ignorant  of  his  besetting  sin,  for  more  than 
once  his  craft  has  been  punished,  his  pride  humbled  to 
the  dust;  neither  has  he  failed  in  some  earnest  efforts  to 
subdue  his  lower,  baser  nature.  And  so  when  the  Divine 
Wrestler  asked  him  his  name  he  honestly  confessed,  “  My 
name  is  Jacob,  the  layer  of  snares,  the  schemer,  the  plot¬ 
ter;  Heel-catcher  I  have  been  from  my  youth  up  until 
now.”  Jacob’s  answer  is  the  explanation  of  the  struggle 
forced  upon  him.  He  must  be  taught  once  for  all  that 
the  intellect  used  in  the  service  of  the  senses  is  irreligious. 
He  must  be  made  to  realize  in  the  depths  of  his  soul  that 
religion  cannot  be  divorced  from  morality;  that  the  all¬ 
holy  God  cannot  sanction  lying,  deceit,  or  pride,  whether 
intellectual  or  spiritual;  that  earthly  place  and  station 
must  not  be  sought  for  its  own  sake  nor  ever  by  fraudu¬ 
lent  arts.  And  so  He  who  loved  Jacob  wrestled  with 
him  through  the  night.  The  agony  of  the  strife  was  sore, 
lasting  till  the  darkness  faded  before  the  dawn.  In  the 
wrestling  of  that  night  his  Divine  Friend  and  Foe  sub¬ 
dued  Jacob,  taught  him  to  say,  “  Thy  will  be  done,”  and 
from  henceforth  he  dwells  in  a  higher  moral  and  spiritual 
sphere,  leaving  his  old  duplicity  behind  him  forever. 

Thy  name,”  said  the  Divine  Wrestler,  “  shall  be  called 
no  more  Jacob,  but  Israel ;  for  as  a  prince  hast  thou  power 
with  God  and  with  men  and  hast  prevailed.” 

We  shall  make  a  mistake,  however,  and  a  serious  mis¬ 
take,  if  we  suppose  that  the  change  in  his  name  indicated 


The  Prince  of  God. 


147 


a  radical  change  made  at  that  moment  in  the  entire  tone 
and  temper  of  his  inner  life.  The  dawn  of  that  memorable 
day  was  but  the  harvest  morning  of  a  long  season  of 
spiritual  growth.  All  that  had  gone  before  in  his  remark¬ 
able  and  eventful  career  was  a  preparation  for  the  struggle 
in  which  he  gained  his  new  name.  Peniel  was  a  richer, 
brighter  place  in  his  memory  than  were  Bethel  or  Maha- 
naim ;  for  though  at  Bethel  he  saw  the  angels  of  God 
ascending  and  descending  on  the  crystal  stairs,  and  at  Ma- 
hanaim  met  them  in  the  very  road  as  they  shed  from  their 
folded  wings  a  golden  glory  on  the  earth,  at  Peniel  he 
saw  “  God  face  to  face  and  his  life  was  preserved.”  Here 
he  finds  himself  endowed  with  peculiar  blessings  unen¬ 
joyed  and  unknown  before.  If  Bethel  was  the  gate  of 
heaven  this  is  its  vestibule.  Like  David  and  Solomon  he 
asks  and  is  given  more  than  he  asks.  He  begs  a  blessing 
and  is  named  Israel;  he  asks  for  silver  and  is  given  gold; 
he  asks  for  bread  and  is  given  manna.  But  Peniel  was 
what  it  was  because  Jacob  has  always  been  unconsciously 
preparing  for  it.  It  would  be  folly  to  think  that  he 
would  have  triumphed  in  this  hour  and  gained  his  princely 
name,  if  he  had  never  struggled  before.  What  happened 
is  the  result  of  a  long  ripening  of  the  heart.  It  is  the 
crowning  of  a  long  work.  This  is  not  the  first  time  nor 
the  second  nor  the  hundredth  time  that  Jacob  has  been 
in  the  Divine  presence  and  sought  divine  aid.  The  time 
has  come  for  Peniel.  The  fruits  of  the  spirit,  like  all 
fruits  under  normal  conditions,  ripen  slowly.  Let  us  be 
patient,  nor  weary  in  well-doing,  and  in  due  season  we  too 
shall  reap  if  we  faint  not.  “  Let  us  hold  fast  the  profes¬ 
sion  of  our  faith  without  wavering ;  for  He  is  faithful  that 
promised  ;  and  let  us  consider  one  another  to  provoke  un¬ 
to  love  and  to  good  works.”  And  the  same  Apostle  says 


148 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


in  another  place :  “  Christ  is  as  a  son  over  His  own  house  ; 
whose  house  are  we,  if  we  hold  fast  the  confidence  and 
the  rejoicing  of  the  hope  firm  unto  the  end.”  St.  Paul, 
too,  exhorts  the  Corinthians :  “  Therefore,  my  beloved 
brethren,  be  ye  steadfast,  unmovable,  always  abounding 
in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  ye  know  that 
your  labor  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord.” 

It  is  furthermore  to  be  observed  that  in  winning  his 
new  name  Jacob  won  for  himself  an  enduring  place  in 
secular  and  religious  history.  He  is  the  recognized 
founder  of  the  Israelitish  race  and  nation.  When  we 
think  what  the  word  Israel  stands  for  in  literature,  in  the 
life  of  the  world,  past,  present,  and  to  come,  in  the 
spiritual  culture  and  aspiration  of  the  race,  we  realize 
in  some  measure  the  wonderful  significance  of  the 
blessing  bestowed  upon  Jacob  at  Peniel.  All  Israelites 
have  looked  to  Jacob  as  their  ancestor;  and  Christians, 
too,  by  their  faith,  are  children  of  Israel.  Nor  can  we 
fail  to  notice  that  the  contrast  between  the  cunning  of 
Jacob’s  earlier  life  and  the  purer,  nobler  manhood  into 
which  he  grew,  of  which  his  new  name  was  the  symbol, 
is  a  contrast  which  is  to  be  traced  in  his  descendants, 
both  as  a  nation  and  as  individuals.  In  true  Israelites, 
as  in  Nathanael  of  the  New  Testament,  there  is  no  guile; 
and  of  Christ,  the  King  of  Israel,  the  true  Israel,  it  is 
written,  “  Neither  was  guile  found  in  his  mouth.”  More 
than  one  commentator  has  pointed  out  that  the  most 
vivid  representation  of  this  contrast — of  the  contrast  be¬ 
tween  the  Jacob-nature  and  the  Israel-nature  —  is  the 
guileless  Christ  receiving  from  Judas  the  kiss  of  betrayal. 

Again,  while  Jacob  entered  the  Holy  Land  on  the 
morrow  not  as  Jacob  but  as  Israel,  he  nevertheless  carried 
with  him  the  marks  of  the  contest.  The  lameness  re- 


The  Prince  of  God. 


149 


ceived  in  the  struggle  remained  and  ever  afterwards  he 
halted  in  his  walk.  “  So  it  sometimes  happens,”  as  has 
been  said,  “  that  a  man  never  recovers  from  the  severe 
handling  he  has  received  at  some  turning-point  in  his 
life.”  After  God  wrestles  with  a  man  to  purify  his  soul 
often  that  man  goes  limping  through  life  from  the  con¬ 
test.  The  broken  health,  or  fortune,  or  pride  leaves  him 
bereft  of  the  confident,  jaunty  self-assurance  which  once 
gave  a  force  and  a  charm  to  his  outward  personality.  Yet 
Jacob’s  wounds  were  tokens  of  victory  and  were  ever  so 
regarded  by  his  descendants.  Our  Lord,  after  His  Resur¬ 
rection,  bore,  and  still  bears,  the  five  wounds  of  His 
Passion;  but  they  are  glorified  wounds,  evidences  of  His 
conquest  over  sin,  Satan,  and  death  ;  wounds  spiritualized, 
beautified  beyond  description ;  nevertheless  wounds  which 
remain  as  badges  of  His  sorrow  and  of  His  triumph.  The 
nail-prints  of  the  Cross  are  the  abiding  proofs  of  Christ’s 
struggle  as  well  as  of  His  victory.  And  the  fact  that  He 
suffered  in  His  earthly  wrestling,  as  His  wounds  show,  is 
the  chief  reason  why  He  holds  His  supreme  place  in  his¬ 
tory  and  in  the  affections  of  our  hearts.  Power  with  God 
which  Jacob  won,  which  Christ  won,  left  upon  the  victor 
the  scars  of  the  conflict.  So  it  is  with  us  in  our  measure. 
The  conflicts  to  which  we  are  called  are  sore.  They  leave 
upon  us  enduring  reminders  of  the  sufferings  of  the  strife. 
But  these  wounds  are  the  badges  of  our  power.  Goethe 
touches  the  border  of  this  truth  when  he  says: 


“  Who  ne’er  his  bread  in  sorrow  ate, 

Who  ne’er  the  mournful  midnight  hours 
Weeping  upon  his  bed  hath  sat, 

He  knows  ye  not,  ye  unseen  powers.” 


Spiritual  conflict  alone  can  win  a  high  mastery  of  self. 


150  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

Faith,  patience,  true  wisdom — these  precious  possessions 
come  not  of  themselves.  Night-watchings,  fightings 
within  and  without,  agonies  of  the  flesh,  travails  of  the 
soul — from  these  and  such  like  wrestlings  come  the  peace 
and  power  of  a  will  that  owns  the  will  of  God.  Such 
battles  leave  their  wound-prints,  but  these  wound-prints 
are  the  emblems  of  victory.  They  are  scars  glorified  and 
beautified  because  evidences  of  that  hard-fought  battle  in 
which  the  wrestling  believer  has  been  changed  into  an 
Israel  who  has  power  with  God  and  men  and  prevails. 


STRANGE  GODS  PUT  AWAY. 


THURSDAY  AFTER  THE  FOURTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  Then  Jacob  said  unto  his  household,  and  to  all  that  were  with  him,  Put 
away  the  strange  gods  that  are  among  you.” — Gen.  xxxv.  2. 

SOMEONE  who  knew  the  heart  of  man  has  said, 
“  Nothing  is  so  pleasant  as  to  give  up  one’s  will  in 
one  s  own  way."  The  pleasantness  of  such  subtlety  had 
a  peculiar  charm  for  Jacob.  But  at  Peniel  God  wrestled 
with  him  and  taught  him  the  vanity  of  shams  in  religion. 
As  the  sun  rose  that  day  on  halting  Jacob  he  was  ready 
for  the  first  time  to  say  with  perfect  sincerity,  “  Thy  will, 
not  mine,  be  done;  done  in  Thine  own  way.”  The  narra¬ 
tive  which  leads  up  to  the  text  shows  us  that  the  new 
grace  bestowed  upon  Jacob,  of  which  his  new  name, 
Israel,  was  the  symbol,  was  a  reality  and  marked  out  an 
epoch  in  the  culture  of  his  soul.  He  resolved  to  restore 
to  his  brother  Esau  all  that  he  had  obtained  by  fraud. 
In  the  strength  of  that  resolution  he  played  the  man, 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his  reunited  bands  and 
boldly  advanced,  doubting  not  that  he  should  prevail 
with  man,  according  to  the  promise  of  the  Wrestler,  as 
he  had  already  prevailed  with  God.  In  a  few  hours 
Esau’s  four  hundred  mounted  warriors  caught  sight  of 
the  slowly  advancing  caravan  and  galloped  down  upon 
them,  and  behold !  Esau  threw  away  his  weapon,  ran  to 
meet  Jacob,  embraced  him,  and  they  both  wept.  In  the 
night  God  had  “appeased  ”  Esau.  Jacob  adhered  to  his 
resolution,  made  the  same  night  in  his  wrestling,  addressed 


152  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

his  brother  as  ”  Lord,”  recognized  him  as  the  first-born, 
heir  of  his  father’s  earthly  goods,  head  of  the  tribe,  chief 
in  all  save  the  spiritual  promise  of  the  birthright.  In  his 
own  frank  and  hearty  way  Esau  forgave  Jacob  on  the 
spot,  welcomed  his  family  and  declined  the  rich  gifts 
Jacob  offered,  saying,  “  Keep  them,  my  brother,  I  have 
enough.”  But  Jacob  insisted  upon  making  the  restitution. 

If  now,”  he  said,  “  I  have  found  grace  in  thy  sight, 
then  receive  my  present  at  my  hand  :  for  therefore  I  have 
seen  thy  face,  as  though  I  had  seen  the  face  of  God, 
and  thou  wast  pleased  with  me.  Take,  I  pray  thee,  my 
blessing  that  is  brought  to  thee ;  because  God  hath  dealt 
graciously  with  me,  and  because  I  have  enough.  And 
he  urged  him,  and  he  took  it.”  On  both  sides  there  may 
have  been  something  of  that  excess  of  courtesy  character¬ 
istic  of  Oriental  manners;  each  said,  “  I  have  enough  ” — 
a  saying  which  few  men  of  to-day,  it  is  to  be  feared,  could 
repeat  with  entire  truthfulness;  yet  the  old  Jewish  inter¬ 
pretation  of  the  peculiar  accent  used  in  the  Hebrew  where 
mention  is  made  of  Esau’s  “  kiss,”  and  that  modern  con¬ 
struction  of  Jacob’s  words  which  makes  them  false  and 
canting,  do  equal  injustice  to  the  men  and  to  the  narra¬ 
tive.  The  reconciliation  was  real  and  true.  Esau  ac¬ 
cepted  the  presents  and  never  asked  for  more.  He  cared 
nothing  whatever  for  the  religious  privileges  of  the  birth¬ 
right,  and  the  question  of  rank  did  not  concern  him.  He 
was  duke  of  his  own  Edom  country  and  he  had  enough. 
Jacob’s  solemn  words  reminded  him  of  the  holy  lessons 
of  his  childhood.  He  was  touched  by  the  look  on  his 
brother’s  face.  In  his  eagerness  to  give  expression  to 
the  impulse  of  the  moment  he  offered  to  accompany  his 
brother  on  his  journey.  But  the  prudence  and  foresight 
which  never  deserted  Jacob  warned  him  that  it  would  be 


Strange  Gods  Put  Away. 


153 


well  to  part  while  the  reconciliation  was  complete,  while 
each  could  carry  away  softening  memories  of  the  meet¬ 
ing;  whereupon  he  soon  separated  from  Esau  and  went 
on  his  journey. 

Notice  that  Jacob  left  behind  him  only  his  presents. 
He  departed  richer,  far  richer,  rather  than  poorer,  because 
of  the  sacrifice  which  he  had  made  in  will,  which  he  was 
ready  to  make  in  deed.  We  began  with  the  saying  that 

Nothing  is  so  pleasant  as  to  give  up  one’s  own  will  in 
one’s  own  way.”  Might  we  not  add  that  it  is  also  very 
pleasant  to  make  a  real  sacrifice,  as  Jacob  did,  and  be 
immediately  rewarded  by  the  return  of  all  and  more  than 
we  sacrificed  ?  There  is  a  true  story,  which  possibly 
would  not  be  altogether  foreign  to  the  experience  of  some 
of  us,  of  a  man  who,  after  a  severe  inward  struggle,  forced 
himself  to  give  a  certain  sum  of  money  in  response  to 
some  urgent  call  of  the  Church,  and  who  soon  afterwards 
received,  quite  unexpectedly,  a  much  larger  sum.  The 
story,  moreover,  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  when  he  was 
asked  again  to  give  he  resolved  to  repeat  his  former 
stroke  of  good  luck  and  gave  this  time  with  the  distinct 
hope  and  expectation  of  getting  back  double  his  money 
— and  met  with  disappointment.  In  this  lottery  he  drew 
a  blank.  Generosity,  righteousness,  love,  are  always  re¬ 
warded  ;  they  are  their  own  reward.  The  temporal  re¬ 
wards  of  goodness,  on  the  contrary,  are  not  to  be  gambled 
for,  nor  does  God  buy  our  service  with  an  immediate, 
unfailing,  earthly  compensation. 

Notice,  also,  the  significance  of  Jacob’s  return  to  the 
land  of  promise.  The  secular  writers  do  not  exag¬ 
gerate  when  they  speak  of  Jacob’s  home-coming  as  a 
“  great  historical  event ;  ”  great,  because  he  and  his  shep¬ 
herd  tribe  “  bore  with  them  the  future  religious  destinies 


1 54 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


of  the  world.”  After  the  long  journey  his  flocks  needed 
rest ;  and  he,  too,  had  passed  through  trials  which  entitled 
him  to  a  season  of  repose  and  meditation.  Accordingly 
he  settled  near  the  border,  first  in  the  lowlands,  after¬ 
wards  in  the  highlands,  of  Shechem  ;  bought  and  paid  for 
a  large  tract  of  land,  making  payment  in  coined  silver  — 
mentioned  here  for  the  first  time,  probably  stamped  with 
the  image  of  a.  lamb,  there  being  no  mention  of  gold  coin 
until  the  reign  of  David.  Here  also  in  Shechem  he  dug 
the  well  which  still  bears  his  name.  Travellers  tell  us 
that  the  well  goes  down  through  twenty  feet  of  loose 
soil,  this  part  being  carefully  built  in  with  neatly  dressed 
stones,  after  which  the  bore  is  made  through  the  solid 
limestone  rock.  “  The  entire  depth  was,  in  the  year 
1 88 1,  sixty-seven  feet,  but  in  1866  it  was  seventy-five 
feet,  and  may  originally  have  been  a  hundred,  or  a  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty,  for  stones  are  continually  dropped  into  it 
by  visitors.”  We  are  also  told  that  the  bore  is  nine  feet 
in  diameter,  and  that  it  usually  contains  as  much  as 
twelve  feet  of  water,  although  sometimes  dry  in  the  sum¬ 
mer-time.  The  sinking  of  such  a  well  is  a  proof  of 
Jacob’s  skill,  industry,  and  wealth,  as  well  as  an  “  exist¬ 
ing  monument  of  his  habitual  prudence,”  for  an  enemy 
might  have  cut  him  off  from  the  stream.  The  slope  upon 
which  this  well  is  located  has  become  famous  in  Jewish 
annals.  Here  Abraham  built  his  first  altar  in  the  land 
of  Canaan;  Joseph’s  bones,  carried  in  the  exodus  from 
Egypt,  were  interred  near  by  at  his  dying  command ; 
and  at  Jacob’s  well  our  blessed  Lord  declared  His  Messiah- 
ship  to  the  woman  of  Samaria,  foretold  the  outpouring 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  extension  of  Christian  faith 
and  worship  throughout  the  world. 

Many  years  of  peace  and  prosperity  ensued.  But  the 


Strange  Gods  Put  Away. 


155 


repose  of  the  household  was  rudely  broken  by  two  of 
Jacob’s  sons,  Simeon  and  Levi,  who  with  a  deceitful 
cruelty  sacked  the  town  of  Shechem  as  an  act  of  vengeance 
for  a  wrong  done  to  their  sister  Dinah,  slaughtering  many 
of  the  natives,  making  captives  of  the  rest,  and  carrying 
off  the  spoils.  There  was  danger  that  other  tribes  in  the 
neighborhood  would  take  up  the  quarrel  and  destroy 
Jacob  with  all  his  family.  In  this  hour  of  peril  the 
patriarch’s  Divine  Friend  reminded  him  of  Bethel,  where 
he  would  be  safe  —  Bethel,  which  he  had  too  long  neg¬ 
lected.  It  was  a  call  to  a  renewed  advance  in  holiness. 
He  must  no  more  be  content  with  a  border  residence  in 
the  land  of  promise.  The  sins  of  his  children  warned 
him  that  he  had  neglected  their  religious  training,  had 
failed  to  govern  his  household  as  a  man  of  God.  Seeing 
clearly  the  cause  of  the  evil  which  had  fallen  upon  him, 
he  calls  his  family  to  repentance  and  prayer.  “  Put 
away,”  was  his  command,  “  the  strange  gods  that  are 
among  you,  and  change  your  garments:  and  let  us  arise 
and  go  to  Bethel;  and  I  will  make  there  an  altar  unto 
God,  who  answered  me  in  the  day  of  my  distress,  and 
was  with  me  in  the  way  which  I  went.”  The  women 
of  the  household  were  chiefly  responsible  for  this  idola¬ 
trous  worship.  Rachel  herself  had  stolen  her  father’s 
images  and  doubtless  consulted  them  in  the  presence  of 
the  children  and  dependants.  But  when  Jacob  gave  the 
command,  ashamed  of  the  folly  of  their  superstition,  all 
obeyed  and  delivered  up  the  idols,  which  he  buried  be¬ 
neath  an  oak  in  Shechem. 

The  lesson  is  plain.  Heads  of  religious  households  are 
accountable  for  the  strange  gods  beneath  their  roofs.  Is 
the  tone  of  our  own  home  life  free  from  such  contamina¬ 
tion  ?  Is  the  talk  of  our  sons  and  daughters  at  the  family 


156  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

board  and  fireside  untouched  by  worldliness,  untarnished 
by  the  materialism  of  the  day  ?  Are  pure  deeds,  lofty 
aims,  unselfish  behavior  fostered  and  praised  there  and 
the  example  of  them  set  in  the  fairest  colors  ?  Were  this 
text  painted  on  the  walls  of  the  living-room  of  Christian 
homes  it  might  preach  a  sermon  many  of  us  need:  “ Put 
away  the  strange  gods  that  are  among  you  !  ” 


THE  OAK  OF  SHECHEM. 


FRIDAY  AFTER  THE  FOURTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  they  gave  unto  Jacob  all  the  strange  gods  which  were  in  their 
hand,  and  all  their  earrings  which  were  in  their  ears  ;  and  Jacob  hid  them 
under  the  oak  which  was  by  Shechem.” — Gen.  xxxv.  4. 

MAN  has  been  called  an  imitative  animal.  He  does 
as  others  do.  This  instinctive  readiness  to  imitate 
the  words  and  ways  and  acts  of  those  around  us  gives  to 
example  its  power  and  its  responsibility.  In  every  rela¬ 
tion  of  life,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  we  influence 
one  another,  and  there  is  nothing  so  constraining  as 
example. 

In  the  text  we  learn  that  while  Jacob  was  struggling 
out  of  his  old  selfish  life  into  a  nobler  manhood,  ceasing 
to  be  Jacob,  becoming  Israel,  the  Prince  of  God,  his 
household  was  being  corrupted  with  idolatry.  The 
example  of  Rachel,  who  still  retained  the  images  she 
had  stolen  from  her  father,  the  faith  and  practices  of  the 
servants  and  of  the  heathen  captives  of  Shechem,  ap¬ 
pealed  to  the  superstitions  of  the  children,  and  little  by 
little  the  members  of  the  chosen  family  were  being 
turned  away  from  the  true  God  to  fix  their  affections 
upon  idols  made  with  hands.  No  doubt  Jacob  should 
have  taken  the  idols  from  his  wife  years  before,  when  he 
first  discovered  them.  But  his  love  for  Rachel  was  so 
tender  that  he  had  not  the  heart  to  displease  her.  It 
may  be  that  the  images  and  other  objects  of  superstition, 
supposed  to  be  endowed  with  talismanic  virtues,  were 


157 


158  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

kept  out  of  his  sight,  and  that  the  worship  of  them,  for 
the  most  part,  escaped  the  attention  of  one  so  deeply 
engrossed  with  other  interests.  Still,  he  knew  something 
of  the  state  of  affairs,  and  he  “  held  his  peace.”  If, 
however,  for  any  reason,  he  had  not  cared  to  exercise  his 
authority,  surely  one  with  Jacob’s  power  in  mastering 
men  would  have  found  it  easy  to  win  these  young  people 
from  their  superstitions.  His  powerful  intellect,  em¬ 
ploying  the  craftiness  he  loved,  would  have  met  with 
little  opposition  or  suspicion.  A  sarcastic  allusion  to  the 
infinite  power  of  men-made  gods  before  Simeon  and  Levi ; 
a  hint  to  Reuben  that  the  first-born  was  not  necessarily 
the  heir;  a  slight  sternness  or  an  intimation  of  restricted 
liberties  to  wilful  Dinah,  the  only  daughter;  a  loving  ap¬ 
peal  to  little  Joseph,  who  like  his  father  dreamed  of  the 
stars  and  of  what  was  beyond  them — some  such  course  as 
this  would  have  checked  the  evil.  One  of  the  Puritan  di¬ 
vines  speaks  of  a  father  who  whipped  his  son  for  swearing 
and  swore  himself  while  he  whipped  him,  thus  doing  more 
harm  by  his  example  than  good  by  his  correction.  But 
Jacob  neither  set  the  example  of  worshipping  idols  nor  cor¬ 
rected  his  children  for  such  folly.  He  took  no  notice  of  it. 

Christian  parents  cannot  make  over  to  their  children 
their  own  spiritual  attainments,  but  they  can  restrain 
them  from  the  idols  of  the  world.  Perhaps  the  heaviest 
punishment  ever  visited  upon  a  believing  parent  was 
meted  out  to  Eli.  And  Eli  was  punished  not  because  he 
failed  to  lead  his  children  into  those  higher  paths  of  holi¬ 
ness  which  he  himself  loved ;  retribution  came  upon  him 
simply  because  “  his  sons  made  themselves  vile  and  he 
restrained  them  not.”  This  much  at  least  Eli  might 
have  done,  Jacob  might  have  done — every  Christian 
parent  might  do  to-day. 


The  Oak  of  Shechem. 


T59 


And  so  the  young  people  followed  the  example  of  the 
mother  and  of  the  servants.  The  power  of  example  can 
scarcely  be  over-stated.  What  is  any  other  source  of 
influence  in  comparison  ?  “  Actions  speak  louder  than 

words;  ”  yet  speech  is  potent.  The  poet  says  truly: 


“  Words  are  things,  and  a  small  drop  of  ink, 

Falling  like  dew  upon  a  thought,  produces 
That  which  makes  thousands,  perhaps  millions,  think.” 

But  the  words  will  die  away  on  the  ear;  those  thoughts 
will  vanish  with  the  closed  book.  You  may  forget  the 
one,  you  may  neglect  the  other.  From  the  example  of 
those  around  you,  however,  there  is  no  escape.  In 
childhood  example  is  everything.  The  lessons  thus 
learned  in  the  early  years  are  seldom  unlearned  or  for¬ 
gotten.  It  was  Ruskin  who  said:  “  Take  your  vase  of 
Venice  glass  out  of  the  furnace  and  strew  chaff  over  it  in 
its  transparent  heat,  and  recover  that  to  its  clearness  and 
rubied  glory,  when  the  north  wind  has  blown  upon  it; 
but  do  not  think  to  strew  chaff  over  the  child  fresh  from 
God’s  presence  and  to  bring  the  heavenly  colors  back  to 
him — at  least  in  this  world.”  It  is  also  true  that  the 
capacity  of  youth  to  receive  impressions  for  good  or  for 
evil  never  grows  old.  We  are  ever  as  steel  to  hold  such 
impressions,  as  wax  to  take  them.  The  photographer’s 
sensitive  plate  and  the  TLolian  harp  are  familiar  illustra¬ 
tions  of  the  readiness  of  the  human  heart  to  respond  to 
outward  influences.  We  are  moulded  by  our  outward 
surroundings.  We  are  the  products  of  environment. 
Rightly  or  wrongly  modern  thought  places  environment 
above  heredity. 

Furthermore,  the  influence  of  example  is  often  an  un¬ 
conscious  one.  It  is  what  we  are  rather  than  what  we  do 


160  The  Bartered  Birthright 

or  say  that  moulds  others.  The  shadow  of  the  Apostle 
Peter  passing  by  wrought  miracles  while  Peter  knew  it 
not.  Every  man  casts  a  moral  shadow  in  which,  often 
unintentionally,  the  man  himself  heals  or  wounds. 
There  can  be  no  more  sobering  thought  than  that  of  our 
accountability  for  our  unconscious  influence.  It  is  not 
to  be  supposed  that  Rachel  deliberately  determined  to 
lead  the  household  away  from  the  worship  of  the  true 
God.  The  young  people,  however,  seeing  where  she  put 
her  trust,  to  what  powers  she  turned  in  perplexity  or  dis¬ 
tress,  followed  her  example.  Thus  all  our  lives  are  inter¬ 
locked  as  are  the  forest  trees,  where,  if  one  falls,  its  fall 
crushes  others.  Take,  for  instance,  the  example  of  pub¬ 
lic  worship  on  the  Lord’s  Day.  One  young  girl  who 
goes  regularly  to  the  early  celebration  will  lead  others  to 
the  altar.  One  deaf  old  man  who  is  always  in  church 
sets  an  example  which  deserves  the  highest  commenda¬ 
tion.  As  he  cannot  hear  a  word  it  is  known  that  he  is 
present  because  he  loves  the  Lord’s  house.  Or  take  the 
example  of  a  father,  respected  and  respectable,  of  high 
standing,  it  may  be,  in  the  community,  who  desires  his 
family  to  attend  church  yet  goes  not  with  them.  His 
children  see  that  the  Church  has  no  place  in  his  affec¬ 
tions.  As  they  grow  older,  the  boys  especially,  follow 
in  their  father’s  footsteps  and  gradually  become  insensible 
to  the  claims  of  God.  If  we  look  at  the  men  in  any  of 
our  congregations  to-day  we  shall  find  that  the  great 
majority  of  them  are  men  whose  fathers  went  to  church 
before  them.  The  young  men  who  drop  out  of  Sunday- 
school  and  forsake  the  Church  are,  with  very  few  excep¬ 
tions,  doing  exactly  as  their  fathers  did  at  the  same  age. 

All  this  leads  on  to  the  consideration  of  the  fact  that 
the  power  of  example  continues  after  death.  It  is  post- 


The  Oak  of  Shechem.  161 

humous.  The  evil  men  do  lives  after  them  ;  so  does  the 
good.  We  are  all  of  us  in  many  ways  the  inheritors  of 
men  and  women  long  departed.  What  we  are  now  will 
also  tell  upon  a  generation  yet  unborn.  There  is  a 
legend  that  after  the  battle  of  Chalons  the  spirits  of  the 
slain  soldiers  continued  the  conflict  for  several  days; 
and  after  we  are  in  the  grave  the  silent,  invisible  influ¬ 
ences  we  have  brought  into  being  will  continue  their 
battle  for  good  or  for  evil.  Theodore  Parker  uttered  a 
true  saying  when  he  lay  dying  in  Italy:  “  There  are  two 
Theodore  Parkers;  one  of  them  is  dying  in  Italy; 
the  other  is  planted  in  America  and  will  continue  to 
live.”  Yes,  we  have  an  immortality  here  on  the  earth. 
So  far  from  blotting  us  out,  death  often  intensifies  our 
personal  influence.  The  remembrance  of  our  faith  and 
works  is  often  more  constraining  than  the  sight  of  them. 

When  Jacob  was  at  length  impelled  to  act,  how,  let  us 
ask,  did  his  family  receive  his  godly  admonition  ?  They 
obeyed  without  a  murmur.  ”  They  gave  unto  Jacob  all 
the  strange  gods  which  were  in  their  hand  and  Jacob  hid 
them,  ’  ’  destroyed  and  buried  them  t  ‘ ‘  under  the  oak  which 
was  by  Shechem.”  Let  believing  parents  of  to-day  be 
encouraged  by  Jacob’s  success.  Let  them  lovingly, 
firmly,  call  for  the  idols  of  their  own  households  and 
bury  them  under  some  oak  of  Shechem.  The  promises 
of  Holy  Scripture  are  many  for  those  who  truly  seek  to 
bring  up  their  households  in  the  nurture  and  admonition 
of  the  Lord.  “  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  and  my  bless¬ 
ing,”  we  read  in  the  forty-fourth  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
”  upon  thine  offspring;  and  they  shall  spring  up  as 
willows  by  the  water-courses.  One  shall  say,  I  am  the 
Lord’s,  and  another  shall  call  himself  by  the  name  of 
Jacob;  and  another  shall  subscribe  with  his  hand  unto 

ii 


162 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


the  Lord,  and  surname  himself  by  the  name  of  Israel.” 
This  is  a  beautiful  picture  of  a  Christian  household. 
Would  that  it  were  true  of  all  our  families!  Each  one 
of  us  can  do  much  to  bring  about  such  blessedness  by 
faithfully  following  St.  Paul’s  advice  to  his  spiritual  son 
Timothy:  Be  thou  an  example  of  the  believers,  in 

word,  in  conversation,  in  charity,  in  spirit,  in  faith,  in 
purity.” 


BETHEL  REVISITED. 


SATURDAY  AFTER  THE  FOURTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  So  Jacob  came  to  Luz,  which  is  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  that  is,  Bethel, 
he  and  all  the  people  that  were  with  him.” — Gen.  xxxv.  6. 

IN  revisiting  Bethel  after  many  years  Jacob’s  heart 
overflows.  The  memory  of  God’s  goodness  is  very 
precious.  Here  in  his  youth,  a  homeless  wanderer,  he 
dreamed  of  heaven,  and  the  vision  never  faded.  Here 
God  promised  to  be  with  him,  to  keep  him,  to  give  him 
bread  to  eat  and  raiment  to  put  on,  to  bring  him  once 
more  to  his  father’s  house  in  peace;  here  Jacob  vowed, 
“  The  Lord  shall  be  my  God.” 

“  Who  dreams  of  God  when  passionate  youth  is  high, 

When  first  life’s  weary  waste  his  feet  have  trod  ? 

Who  seeth  angels’  foot-falls  in  the  sky, 

Working  the  works  of  God? 

His  sun  shall  fade  as  gently  as  it  rose.” 

Jacob  acknowledged  the  faithfulness  of  the  Lord,  the 
promise-keeping  God,  and  looked  forward  doubting  not 
that  the  God  of  Bethel  would  still  go  with  him,  keep  him, 
feed  him,  and  bring  him  in  peace  to  the  grave  and  gate 
of  death  and  to  the  Father’s  house  beyond. 

For  others  Bethel  might  be  only  a  bleak  hillside;  to 
Jacob  it  was  the  holiest  of  shrines.  To  him  its  inanimate 
rocks  and  trees  and  springs  were  endowed  with  the  power 
of  speech.  He  assembled  his  household,  related  once 
more  the  story  of  his  Ladder-vision,  pointed  out  the 

163 


164 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


spot  where  his  head  rested  when  he  was  in  dreams,  and 
erected  an  altar  which  he  dedicated  with  becoming 
solemnities. 

When  Jacob  told  his  children  the  meaning  of  Bethel, 
deeply  moved  by  the  sight  of  his  emotion,  they  may  have 
had  thoughts  which  find  expression  in  the  lines  of  a 
living  poet : 

“  I  saw  the  Syrian  sunset’s  meteor  crown 
Hang  over  Bethel  for  a  little  space  ; 

I  saw  a  gentle  wanderer  lie  down 
With  tears  upon  his  face. 

“  Sheer  up  the  fathomless,  transparent  blue, 

Rose  jasper  battlements  and  crystal  wall ; 

Rung  all  the  night  air  pierced  through  and  through 
With  harps  angelical. 

“  And  a  great  ladder  was  set  up  the  while 

From  earth  to  heaven,  with  angels  on  each  round ; 

Barks  that  bore  precious  freight  to  earth’s  fair  isle, 

Or  sailed  back  homeward-bound.” 


It  is  not  difficult  for  us  to  imagine  Jacob’s  own  feelings 
upon  his  return  to  Bethel.  There  are  places  which  hold 
records  of  our  lives.  Each  one  of  us  can  point  to  houses, 
streets,  streams,  hills,  or  other  inanimate  objects  that  tell 
tales  of  what  we  have  said  and  thought  and  done  in  their 
presence ;  which  are  vocal  though  voiceless  and  have  mar¬ 
vellous  power  to  awaken  memories  of  the  past  and  are 
pleasurably  or  painfully  suggestive  according  to  the 
record  we  ourselves  have  made  upon  them.  This  is, 
perhaps,  the  explanation  of  the  universal  tendency  to  per¬ 
sonify  everything  around  us.  Children  utter  passionate 
words  to  stones  or  blocks  or  pieces  of  furniture  from  which 
they  have  received  an  injury,  and  strike  them,  as  if  these 


Bethel  Revisited. 


165 

things  could  hear  and  feel  and  respond.  When  children 
grow  up  and  are  about  to  leave  their  childhood’s  home 
for  years,  perhaps  forever,  they  often  move  among  the 
rooms  and  through  the  grounds,  uttering  farewells  as 
though  these  silent  and  emotionless  things  could  feel  the 
sorrow  of  parting  and  could  reply  with  some  farewell  of 
their  own.  Another  illustration  of  this  tendency  to  per¬ 
sonify  the  inanimate  may  be  seen  in  the  religions  of  the 
cultivated  Greek  and  Roman  civilizations,  wherein  the 
grander  objects  and  phenomena  of  the  universe  are  repre¬ 
sented  as  divinities,  living  and  possessing  human  passions. 
In  one  form  or  another,  in  every  land,  everything  with 
which  humanity  has  had  association  has  been  pictured  as 
making  record  of  the  association  and  somehow  responding 
to  the  emotions  of  the  human  heart.  Our  blessed 
Saviour  found  this  thought  and  habit  among  the  people 
with  whom  He  lived  and  labored  while  on  earth,  and  in 
His  sermons  made  the  trees  and  fields  and  flowers  vocal, 
leaving  His  earthly  life  impressed  upon  every  place  and 
thing  which  He  approached.  The  hills,  plains,  valleys, 
towns,  and  waters  of  Palestine  are  to  this  day  alive  with 
the  story  of  the  Lord’s  earthly  life.  Bethlehem,  Jerusa¬ 
lem,  the  Temple,  the  tomb  of  Lazarus,  Jacob’s  well,  the 
River  Jordan,  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  the  brook  of  Kedron, 
Gethsemane,  Calvary  —  all  these  speak  of  Christ  and 
will  continue  forever  to  repeat  the  story  of  the  events  of 
which  they  were  the  silent  witnesses. 

We,  too,  for  our  part,  are  writing  our  own  history  on 
the  objects  around  us  and  among  which  we  pass  in  the 
journey  of  life.  Each  life,  each  turning-point  of  life,  can 
be  connected  with  certain  houses,  schools,  churches,  or 
objects  of  the  world  of  nature.  A  short  list  of  the  names 
of  such  things  and  places  would  give  the  outlines  of  your 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


1 66 

life  and  mine.  Jacob’s  history  could  be  condensed  into 
less  than  a  dozen  words — Hebron,  Bethel,  Padan-aram, 
Gilead,  Mahanaim,  Peniel,  Shechem,  Ephrath,  Dothan, 
the  land  of  Goshen. 

What  we  want,  then,  is  such  an  association  with  in¬ 
animate  things  that  they  shall  utter  words  of  hope  and 
cheer  to  us  whenever  we  revisit  them.  Doubtless  Jacob 
tried  to  impress  this  lesson  upon  his  household.  His 
joy  in  revisiting  Luz,  which  is  Bethel,  was  undimmed  by 
the  remembrance  of  any  sin  committed  there.  There  his 
sin  was  forgiven.  There  he  saw  the  heavens  opened. 
Of  Bethel  he  could  say: 

“  But  at  Luz  God  came  to  me  :  in  my  heart 
He  put  a  better  mind,  and  showed  me  how, 

While  we  discern  it  not,  and  least  believe, 

On  stairs  invisible  betwixt  His  heaven 
And  our  unholy,  sinful,  toilsome  earth 
Celestial  messengers  of  loftiest  good 
Upward  and  downward  pass  continually.” 

What  vivid  impressions  of  the  great  experience  which 
came  to  their  father  in  his  youth  at  Bethel  Jacob’s 
children  must  have  received  while  he  related  it  upon  the 
very  spot !  It  may  be  that  some  of  them  lay  down  upon 
the  stones  that  night  hoping  to  see  for  themselves  a 
similar  vision.  How  often  have  we  also  longed  for  some 
vivid  sight  of  the  open  heaven  or  for  the  sound  of  a  voice 
from  the  eternal  silences  —  and  longed  in  vain!  The 
golden  ladder  did  not  lower  again  at  Bethel. 


“  Ah,  many  a  time  we ’ve  looked,  on  star-light  nights, 
Up  to  the  skies  as  Jacob  looked  of  old  ; 

Looked  longing  up  to  those  eternal  lights 
To  spell  their  lines  of  gold. 


Bethel  Revisited. 


167 


“  But  never  more,  as  to  that  Hebrew  boy, 
Each  in  his  way  the  angels  walk  abroad  ; 
And  never  more  we  hear,  with  awful  joy, 
The  audible  voice  of  God.” 


Still  the  same  heavens  are  there,  the  same  Father  looks 
down  and  sends  the  same  messengers  of  love  upon  like 
errands  of  love  to  all  who  look  upward  in  faith. 


“  Yet  to  pure  eyes  that  ladder  still  is  set, 

And  angel  visitants  still  come  and  go  ; 

Many  bright  messengers  are  moving  yet 
In  this  dark  world  below. 

“  Thoughts  that  are  red-crossed  Faith’s  out-spreading  wings, 

Prayers  of  the  Church,  aye  keeping  time  and  tryst, 

Heart  wishes,  making  bee-like  murmurings, 

Their  flower,  the  Eucharist.” 

These  and  many  other  such  like  aspirations  are  the  bur¬ 
dens  of  ascending  angels,  while  other  blessed  messengers 
whom  faith’s  eye  “  alone  can  scan  ”  are  ever  descending 
from  the  throne  of  grace. 

When  Jacob  revisited  Bethel  he  found  that  the  place 
bore  its  imperishable  record  of  his  past.  That  fact  he 
would  be  anxious  to  have  his  children  apprehend.  That 
lesson  is  for  us  also.  The  office,  the  shop,  the  mill,  re¬ 
flect  our  work  there.  The  chamber  where  we  sleep,  the 
streets  we  walk  in,  utter  in  our  ears  the  loves,  the  pur¬ 
poses,  the  deeds,  formed  or  wrought  within  them.  The 
room  where  you  joined  in  family  prayer  in  childhood; 
the  altar  before  which  you  made  your  first  communion; 
the  grave  of  your  first-born;  the  place  of  business  or 
pleasure  where  you  resisted  the  grace  of  God ;  the  house 
in  which  you  committed  a  deed  of  wrong  or  of  shame, 
when  fierce  passions  assailed  you — each  of  us  can  point 


1 68  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

to  some  such  place  bearing  our  own  life-records.  Re¬ 
association  with  these  scenes  always  brings  the  old 
memories  back  to  life.  Those  memories  will  not  die. 
They  will  go  with  us  to  the  Seat  of  Judgment. 


THREE  GRAVES. 


MONDAY  AFTER  THE  FIFTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  But  Deborah  Rebekah’s  nurse  died,  and  she  was  buried  beneath  Bethel 
under  an  oak.” — Gen.  xxxv.  8. 

“And  Rachel  died,  and  was  buried  in  the  way  to  Ephrath,  which  is 
Bethlehem.” — Gen.  xxxv.  19. 

“And  Isaac  gave  up  the  ghost,  and  died,  and  was  gathered  unto  his 
people,  being  old  and  full  of  days  :  and  his  sons  Esau  and  Jacob  buried 
him.” — Gen.  xxxv.  29. 


FFLICTION  followed  close  upon  Jacob’s  rededica¬ 


tion  of  his  life  to  God  at  Bethel.  He  is  now  to  be 


taught  that  sorrow  purifies  and  refines  the  soul.  The 
higher  life  he  longs  for  is  to  be  won  only  at  the  cost  of 
tears.  He  too  must  be  enabled  to  count  it  among  his 
foremost  spiritual  blessings  that  his  “  heart  has  bled.” 

Many  secrets  of  religion,”  says  Jeremy  Taylor,  “  are 
not  perceived  until  they  be  felt,  and  are  not  felt  but  in 
the  day  of  a  great  calamity.”  Longfellow  said,  “  It  has 
done  me  good  to  be  somewhat  parched  by  the  heat  and 
drenched  by  the  rain  of  life.”  Horace  Bushnell  could 
write,  “  I  have  learned  more  of  experimental  religion 
since  my  little  boy  died  than  in  all  my  life  before.”  The 
three  deaths  recorded  in  the  chapter  before  us  to-day 
brought  home  to  Jacob  some  of  these  holy  lessons. 

But  we  are  not  for  a  moment  to  suppose  that  Jacob’s 
loved  ones  were  taken  from  him  to  purify  Jacob’s  soul. 
That  would  be  a  horrible  thought.  If  Jacob  had  believed 
that,  his  loss  would  have  been  a  curse  and  not  a  blessing. 
In  that  case  his  dear  ones  would  have  been  dealt  with 


169 


170  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

arbitrarily,  unjustly.  No ;  God  did  not  take  them  to  help 
Jacob  become  a  better  man  nor  because  Jacob  loved  them 
too  dearly.  Two  of  the  deaths  took  place  in  advanced 
age  and  were  in  the  course  of  nature;  the  other  we  can¬ 
not  explain,  for  Rachel  died  suddenly  and  in  her  youth 
—  could  we  explain  it  we  should  be  as  God,  and  there 
would  be  no  room  for  faith,  or  even  for  prayer;  but  we 
may  rest  assured  that  God,  who  knows  the  end  from  the 
beginning,  dealt  generously,  lovingly,  with  Rachel;  that 
in  the  wisdom  and  will  of  God  her  time  had  come. 
Nevertheless,  it  was  a  gracious  Providence  which  called 
Jacob  to  meet  affliction  at  a  season  when  he  was  in  a  state 
of  grace,  fortified  by  high  resolves,  far  more  equal  to  mak¬ 
ing  such  submission  to  the  will  of  God  than  ever  before 
in  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  and  also  at  a  period  in  his 
career  in  which  the  softening  influences  of  a  great  grief 
could  accomplish  most  effectually  their  blessed  work  upon 
his  heart  and  mind.  We  are  told  that  our  Lord  learned 
obedience  by  the  things  which  He  suffered.  In  Passion 
Week  our  attention  is  directed  towards  that  supreme 
grief  which  purchased  our  salvation.  The  story  before 
us  of  a  human  heart  wrung  by  an  anguish  God-given  be¬ 
fits  the  week  and  may  help  us  to  penetrate  some  little 
way  into  the  mystery  of  those  Divine  sufferings  which 
were  at  the  same  time  most  truly  human  and  common  to 
man. 

Jacob  was  first  called  upon  to  mourn  for  Deborah,  his 
mother’s  nurse.  When  his  mother,  Rebekah,  came  as  a 
bride  to  the  Holy  Land,  faithful  Deborah,  who  had 
suckled  her  in  infancy,  accompanied  the  bride  and  re¬ 
mained  a  member  of  the  household  so  long  as  her  mis¬ 
tress  lived.  When  Rebekah  died  this  warm-hearted  old 
woman  made  her  way  somehow  across  the  desert  wilds  to 


Three  Graves. 


171 

find  a  refuge  with  the  son  whom  the  mother  loved  and 
trusted.  It  is  one  of  the  highest  compliments  Jacob  ever 
received,  an  unexpected  revelation  of  his  kindness  and 
sympathy  and  of  his  power  to  inspire  confidence  in  those 
who  knew  him  best,  that  this  shrewd  and  loving  old  nurse 
turned  to  him,  not  to  his  father,  Isaac,  nor  to  his  brother, 
Esau,  in  her  helpless  old  age  to  seek  a  protector  and  a 
home.  In  fact  Jacob  was  ever  trusted  by  women,  trusted 
more  than  loved,  for  intellectual  strength  is  not  in  itself 
lovable,  and  when  joined  to  spiritual  insight  seldom 
awakens  passionate  attachments.  Neither  did  any  woman 
ever  have  cause  to  reproach  Jacob  or  ever  receive  at  his 
hands  other  than  the  most  courteous  and  chivalrous 
treatment. 

Deborah,  the  old  nurse,  served  her  people  for  love,  not 
for  pay ;  she  was  rewarded,  it  is  pleasant  to  read,  according 
to  her  merit.  In  this  country  such  relationships  are  rare. 
Schoolhouses,  electric  lights,  hotels,  are  unfavorable  to 
the  growth  of  these  lifelong  attachments  which  are 
equally  honorable  to  the  household  and  to  the  de¬ 
pendant.  Where  it  is  possible  to  retain  such  a  faithful 
old  heart  in  the  home  it  is  a  great  loss  surely,  a  great  sin 
probably,  to  break  the  tie  which  has  strengthened  itself 
in  the  memories  of  the  years.  Under  the  “  Oak  of  weep¬ 
ing  ”  Jacob  buried  Deborah  at  Bethel;  and  his  home  was 
never  quite  the  same  again.  Her  “  wise  and  happy  old 
face  ”  would  greet  him  no  more  upon  his  return  from  the 
cares  and  labors  of  the  day ;  there  was  no  one  else  who 
“  called  him  by  the  pet  name  of  childhood;  ”  and  Jacob 
wept  for  a  true  friend  as  well 'as  for  the  faithful  old  nurse 
who  had  cheerfully  given  her  life’s  affectionate  service  to 
his  family. 

Soon  afterwards  Jacob  departed  from  Bethel  to  visit 


172  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

his  father  Isaac,  and  on  the  journey  Rachel,  the  light 
and  joy  of  his  life,  was  taken  from  him.  She  who  had 
said,  “  Give  me  children,  or  I  die,”  is  now  to  know  “  the 
misery  of  a  granted  prayer.  ”  As  her  “  soul  was  departing” 
she  named  her  new-born  son  “  Ben-o-ni,  the  son  of  my 
sorrow,”  but  Jacob,  for  her  encouragement,  and  because 
he  would  not  give  up  hope  while  there  was  life,  called 
him  “  Benjamin,  the  son  of  my  right  hand.”  The  narra¬ 
tive  lingers  not,  the  fatal  words  are  written,  “And  Rachel 
died.”  Jacob  buried  his  beautiful  and  beloved  wife  where 
she  died,  in  Bethlehem  Ephrath,  and  her  grave  is  known 
to  this  day. 


“  And  Israel  looked  upon  his  Rachel  wanned, 

Like  a  white  flower  beneath  long  summer  rain, 

So  she  with  sweat  of  child-birth  her  thin  hand 
Laid  on  the  counterpane. 

“  Near  Ephrath  there ’s  a  pillared  tomb  apart ; 

It  casts  a  shadow  o’er  her  where  she  lies 
As  she  a  shadow  o’er  her  husband’s  heart 
Of  household  memories.” 

Rachel  is  ever  spoken  of  as  the  mother  of  the  chosen 
people,  and  typical  of  the  Church,  the  Bride  of  Christ. 
She  was  buried  apart  from  other  members  of  the  family 
in  Bethlehem  where  Christ,  the  true  Israelite,  was  born; 
and  there  in  her  grave  she  is  represented  as  weeping  for 
her  children,  the  Holy  Innocents,  who  were  slain  for 
Christ’s  dear  sake.  Jacob  restrained  his  grief,  bore  it 
manfully,  and  in  faith,  but  his  heart  was  broken.  The 
story  of  his  constant  love  for  Rachel  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  things  in  all  literature. 


“  For  ne’er  was  wife,  poor  Rachel !  loved  like  thee.” 


Three  Graves. 


173 


In  his  daily  occupations  and  companionships  the  chief¬ 
tain  of  the  tribe,  silent,  alert,  masterful,  ready  for  any 
emergency,  would  have  shown  no  outward  evidence  of 
the  romance  which  illumined  his  inner  life.  But  the 
poetry  and  the  ideals  of  life  he  found  in  Rachel.  His 
love  came  to  him  at  first  sight.  The  fourteen  years  of 
toil  seemed  short  because  of  it.  It  grew  with  the  years 
and  never  wavered.  When  he  was  dying,  half  a  century 
later  on,  her  name  was  on  his  lips:  “  I  lost  her;  as  I  was 
in  the  way  she  left  me.”  For  the  time  he  forgets  all  else 
and  couples  her  name  with  the  name  of  God  :  “  I  remem¬ 
ber  God,  and  I  remember  Rachel  that  died.”  As  has 
been  said  many  times,  Jacob’s  visions  at  Bethel  and  at 
Peniel,  together  with  this  pure,  constant,  unselfish  love 
for  Rachel,  connect  him  with  all  that  is  highest  and 
noblest  in  the  experiences  of  the  human  race. 

The  death  of  Isaac,  Jacob’s  father,  is  also  recorded 
in  this  chapter.  He  lived  for  some  time  after  Jacob 
reached  his  home;  and  his  closing  years  were  comforted 
by  the  presence  and  care  of  his  descendants,  his  faith 
strengthened  by  Jacob’s  conversation,  his  riches,  and  his 
twelve  sons,  the  future  heads  of  the  Twelve  Tribes  of 
Israel.  Esau  was  summoned  to  his  death-bed,  and  the 
twin  sons,  reconciled  and  dutiful,  followed  Isaac  to  the 
grave. 

Henceforth  Jacob  looked  beyond  the  stars  not  only  for 
his  God  and  the  angels  of  God,  but  also  for  his  own  loved 
ones.  Earth  held  his  chief  treasure  no  longer.  Where 
his  treasure  was  there  his  heart  turned  more  and  more. 
We  too  have  sorrowed.  We  too  have  loved  ones  we 
have  lost  awhile.  Let  us  not  forget  them.  In  shame 
we  sometimes  feel  that  we  are  neglectful  of  them.  The 
blessed  doctrine  of  the  Communion  of  Saints  is  too  little 


i  74  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

known  or  accepted.  In  our  prayers  and  meditations  we 
should  call  up  the  faces  of  our  dead.  The  thought  of 
them  will  shield  us  from  temptation  and  help  us  to  set 
our  affections  on  things  above. 


THE  SALE  OF  JOSEPH. 


TUESDAY  AFTER  THE  FIFTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  And  they  drew  and  lifted  up  Joseph  out  of  the  pit,  and  sold  Joseph  to 
the  Ishmaelites  for  twenty  pieces  of  silver  :  and  they  brought  Joseph  into 
Egypt.” — Gen.  xxxvii.  28. 

IN  most  lives  there  are  long  years  of  peace  and  suffi¬ 
ciency.  After  Isaac’s  death  Jacob  succeeded  his 
father  as  the  recognized  head  of  the  chosen  family;  his 
earthly  ambitions  were  realized  and  he  lived  in  peace 
with  God  and  man.  The  sale  of  Joseph  by  his  brothers, 
related  in  the  text,  broke  the  even  tenor  of  these  un¬ 
eventful  years  and  exercised  a  powerful  influence  upon 
the  future  destinies  of  Jacob  and  the  Jewish  race.  To¬ 
day  we  are  to  consider  the  providences  by  which  Joseph 
was  sold  into  Egypt. 

It  was  providential,  that  is  certain ;  a  providence  long 
prepared,  carefully  worked  out,  and,  although  using  the 
evil  of  men’s  hearts  as  its  instrument,  in  the  end  a  blessed 
providence.  Joseph  was  sent  into  Egypt  in  order  to  pre¬ 
pare  the  way  for  the  migration  thither  of  all  his  father’s 
household.  But  why,  in  the  Divine  purposes,  was  this 
change  of  habitation  desirable  ?  Religious  writers  have 
given  two  answers.  First,  Jacob’s  family,  increasing  so 
rapidly  in  wealth  and  numbers  —  ceasing  to  be  a  family, 
becoming  a  tribe,  a  large  and  powerful  tribe — could  no 
longer  remain  in  safety  in  the  Holy  Land.  Too  weak  to 
conquer  the  land,  in  a  collision  with  the  fierce  and 
heathen  natives,  Jacob’s  family  would  be  exterminated. 


175 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


1 76 

And  such  a  conflict  was  imminent.  In  Egypt  the  tribe 
could  grow  into  twelve  tribes,  into  a  nation,  separate,  un¬ 
contaminated,  under  the  protection  of  a  friendly  monarch. 
There  was  another  reason  for  the  sojourn  in  Egypt.  From 
the  highest  civilization  of  the  ancient  world  with  its  re¬ 
finements  and  proprieties  and  laws,  its  schools  of  science 
and  of  art,  its  manufactures  and  mechanics, these  untaught 
plainsmen  would  acquire  much  which  would  go  into  the 
entire  warp  and  woof  of  the  future  Jewish  nation.  And 
Joseph  was  the  man  chosen  and  sent  before  them.  In 
the  familiar  story  of  this  destined  one’s  entrance  into 
Egypt  and  his  career  there  we  are  able  to  trace  God’s 
own  thought  and  purpose. 

Jacob’s  favoritism  was  the  chief  thing  which  turned 
the  brothers  against  Joseph.  It  has  been  conjectured 
that  in  manner  and  appearance  the  lad  “  was  a  perfect 
picture  of  his  mother  Rachel.”  We  are  told  that 

Israel  loved  Joseph  more  than  all  his  children,  and 
made  him  a  coat  of  many  colors.”  There  is  some  dis¬ 
agreement  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  translated 
“  coat  of  many  colors,”  and  scholars  have  been  disposed 
to  rob  us  of  our  childhood’s  picture  of  Joseph  arrayed  in 
his  rainbow-hued  coat  and  to  substitute  in  his  place  a 
youth  clad  in  a  priestly  tunic  of  white,  or  in  a  long  flow¬ 
ing  garment  also  white,  reaching  to  his  hands  and  feet. 
Recent  researches  and  discoveries,  however,  as  in  so 
many  other  instances,  have  led  to  a  return  to  the  old 
rendering,  and  ”  coat  of  many  colors  ”  is  now  generally 
accepted  as  admissible,  probably  preferable.  This  coat, 
a  garment  such  as  was  generally  worn  ”  by  the  ruling 
classes,  by  those  who  had  not  to  work  with  their  hands,” 
indicated  that  his  father  had  chosen  Joseph  to  be  the 
future  chieftain  of  the  tribe.  For  this  reason  his  brothers 


The  Sale  of  Joseph. 


1 77 


hated  him  and  could  not  speak  peaceably  unto  him.” 
They  hated  him  also  because  he  told  tales  of  their 
misdoings;  although  we  may  suppose  that  he  only 
answered  his  father’s  questions  and  told  the  truth. 
And  they  hated  him  yet  more  because  of  his  dreams, 
afterwards  fulfilled  to  the  letter:  ”  I  have  dreamed,”  he 
said,  “  that  we  were  binding  sheaves  in  the  field,  and  lo, 
my  sheaf  arose  and  also  stood  upright;  and  behold,  your 
sheaves  stood  round  about,  and  made  obeisance  to  mv 
sheaf.”  Again  he  dreamed  that  “  the  sun  and  the  moon 
and  the  eleven  stars  made  obeisance  unto  him.”  This 
increased  his  brethren’s  hatred  and  envy  ;  ”  but  his  father 
observed  the  saying.” 

Joseph  hated,  the  next  act  in  the  tragedy  opens.  One 
day  his  father  sent  him  to  visit  his  brothers  who  were 
feeding  the  flock  in  Shechem,  and  when  they  saw  him 
coming  over  the  hills  they  conspired  against  him,  saying 
one  to  another,  “  Come  let  us  slay  him,  and  we  shall  see 
what  will  become  of  his  dreams!”  Reuben,  the  first¬ 
born,  probably  in  command,  was  the  only  one  who  did 
not  in  his  heart  consent  to  the  murder.  He  urged  them 
not  to  kill  the  lad,  but  rather  cast  him  into  an  empty 
cistern  and  let  him  die, — intending  to  rescue  him  “  and 
deliver  him  to  his  father  again.”  It  was  agreed.  When 
Joseph  drew  near  they  seized  him,  stripped  him  of  his 
many-colored  coat,  and  cast  him  into  the  pit.  He  was 
but  seventeen  years  old,  helpless  in  the  hands  of  ten 
grown  men.  The  deed  done,  they  sat  down  near  the 
mouth  of  the  pit  and  ate  and  drank,  feasting  perhaps  on 
the  dainties  their  innocent  victim  had  brought  them  as 
a  present  from  home.  Reuben  soon  withdrew  to  attend 
to  some  duty  of  the  day  or  to  devise  a  plan  of  rescue. 

During  his  absence  a  caravan  of  merchantmen  was  seen 
12 


1 78  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

approaching,  and  Judah  made  the  suggestion  that  they 
should  sell  the  dreamer  as  a  slave ;  the  pit  was  opened,  the 
captive  drawn  out  and  sold  for  twenty  pieces  of  silver — 
two  for  each  brother, — the  usual  price  of  a  slave  under 
age,  thirty  pieces  being  the  value  of  a  full-grown  man. 
When  their  guiltless  victim  was  led  away  into  a  cruel 
slavery  had  they  baffled  his  dreams  ?  On  the  contrary, 
they  were  helping  to  bring  them  to  pass. 

In  the  evening,  wavering,  unstable  Reuben  stealthily 
visited  the  pit  and  found  it  empty.  He  took  it  for 
granted  that  the  ten  had  slain  Joseph  and  concealed  the 
body.  Reuben  received  no  portion  of  the  twenty  pieces 
of  silver,  did  not  know  of  the  sale,  and  believed  that  his 
brother  was  dead. 

“  Sold  by  them  that  should  have  loved  thee, 

Wearing  graciously  thy  glory 
Through  the  land  thy  wisdom  won  ; 

How  should  Christians  read  thy  story, 

Aged  Israel’s  favored  son  ?  ” 

Can  we  fail  to  read  in  it  of  Him,  beloved  of  the  Father, 
whose  brethren  said,  “This  is  the  heir,  come  let  us  kill 
Him;”  whose  “own  received  Him  not;”  delivered  for 
the  price  of  a  slave ;  rising  from  the  pit  to  the  throne ; 
whose  Passion  won  for  brethren  who  hated  Him  deliver¬ 
ance  and  a  “  better  country  ?  ” 

The  coat  of  many  colors  was  dipped  in  blood  and  car¬ 
ried  home  to  Jacob,  who  “  knew  it,  and  said,  It  is  my 
son’s  coat;  an  evil  beast  hath  devoured  him.” 

We  know  why  Joseph  was  sold  into  Egypt.  There 
are  other  important  lessons  in  the  narrative.  Jacob  be¬ 
lieving  his  son  dead,  sorrowing  for  the  vacant  place  in  his 
home,  acknowledges  that  he  is  being  punished  for  the 


The  Sale  of  Joseph. 


1 79 


sins  of  the  past.  He  who  had  deceived  his  father  is  now 
deceived  by  his  own  sons.  Those  who  make  light  of  sin, 
think  it  easily  forgiven,  its  consequences  not  to  be  feared, 
can  glean  no  encouragement  for  their  assumption  from 
Jacob’s  history. 

But  the  discipline  of  the  parting  was  good  both  for  the 
father  and  for  the  son.  It  made  a  man  of  Joseph.  In  his 
father’s  house  he  was  in  grave  danger  of  being  spoilt  by 
favoritism ;  in  Egypt  he  was  forced  to  depend  upon  him¬ 
self  ;  it  was  sink  or  swim ;  the  anguish,  the  temptation, 
and  the  toil  strengthened  his  moral  nature,  sharpened  his 
ambition ;  and  in  Egypt  he  reached  far  higher  earthly 
honors  and  gained  far  profounder  religious  experiences 
and  attainments  than  ever  would  have  been  possible  in 
his  own  land. 

The  loss  was  also  good  for  Jacob.  Taking  his  trouble 
to  God  he  would  be  taught  that  this  grief  was  not  only  a 
chastisement  for  sin  but  also  the  answer  to  earnest  prayer 
for  higher  spiritual  privileges  and  acquirements.  Do  you 
sometimes  long  for  the  saintly  life  as  Jacob  did  just  be¬ 
fore  his  loss  ?  Do  you  sometimes  pray  to  be  made  a 
better  Christian  ?  That  may  be  a  dangerous  longing  and 
a  perilous  prayer.  For  some  of  us  the  furnace  of  affliction 
might  be  the  only  possible  answer. 

Jacob,  let  us  also  remember,  was  a  student  of  the  ways 
of  God  as  well  as  of  the  ways  of  men.  He  would  say  to 
himself,  “  Either  all  is  chance,  and,  if  only  chance,  un¬ 
worthy  of  a  man’s  grief,  too  insignificant  to  set  this  keen 
old  brain  of  mine  at  work  upon  ;  or  else  God  is,  and  reigns, 
and  all  is  well.  If  God  is  on  the  throne,  whatever  hap¬ 
pens  to  Joseph,  whatever  the  pain  of  my  own  heart,  the 
ordering  must  be  just  and  right,  designed  for  good,  con¬ 
sequently  endurable.”  Thus  to  the  true  believer  days  of 


i8o 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


darkness  are  growing  days.  And  so  God  gives  us  tears. 
To  submit  to  the  dispensations  of  Providence  is  the  evi¬ 
dence  of  our  faith  in  God  and  in  His  love.  Benjamin 
Franklin,  near  the  end  of  his  long,  eventful  life,  more  or 
less  under  the  influence  of  French  infidelity,  said:  “  The 
longer  I  live,  the  more  convincing  proofs  I  see  of  this 
truth  that  God  governs  in  the  affairs  of  men.”  Jacob 
and  Joseph,  when  they  met  again  in  the  palace  of  the 
Egyptian  King,  could  say  that,  could  say  furthermore, 
now  we  know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  God.” 


THE  FAMINE-TIME. 


WEDNESDAY  AFTER  THE  FIFTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  Jacob  their  father  said  unto  them,  Me  have  ye  bereaved  of  my 
children  :  Joseph  is  not,  and  Simeon  is  not,  and  ye  will  take  Benjamin 
away  :  all  these  things  are  against  me.” — Gen.  xlii.  36. 

IN  the  sorest  of  the  famine-time  Jacob  murmured.  In 
his  dejection  he  lost  his  faith.  Although  he  was  be¬ 
coming  an  old  man  his  complaints  are  not  to  be  excused 
as  merely  the  querulousness  of  old  age.  His  mind  was 
clear,  his  eye  undimmed,  his  reign  over  his  tribe  su¬ 
preme.  Such  strong  old  men  rule  the  world ;  always 
have;  always  will.  That  Jacob  was  not  in  his  dotage 
appears  from  his  manner  of  meeting  the  famine  when 
first  the  dearth  fell  upon  the  land.  His  sons,  grown 
men,  with  families  of  their  own,  folded  their  hands  and 
waited  either  for  rain  or  for  death.  But  Jacob  was  ready 
for  action.  He  did  not  know  that  the  famine  was  an 
ordained  agent  to  bring  him  to  Joseph  and  the  land  of 
Goshen ;  therefore  he  would  fight  the  famine.  In  his 
staunch  old  heart  he  was  so  far  from  regarding  the  situa¬ 
tion  as  hopeless  that  in  the  confidence  of  his  own  resources 
he  addressed  his  sons  with  a  sarcastic  gentleness  :  ‘  ‘  There 
is  corn  in  Egypt;  I  have  money;  you  have  youthful 
strength  for  the  journey;  go  and  buy;  ‘  Why  look  ye 
one  upon  another ’  in  despair?”  It  is  clear  that  the 
old  man’s  brain  is  not  senile,  and  that  he  “  has  been 
eying  this  condition  of  incompetency  and  cowardice  on 
the  part  of  his  sons  with  some  curiosity  and  with  some 

181 


182 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


contempt  and  now  breaks  in  upon  it  with  his  ‘  Why  look 
ye  one  upon  another  ?  ’  It  is  the  old  Jacob,  full  of  re¬ 
sources,  prompt  and  imperturbable,  equal  to  every  turn 
of  fortune,  and  never  knowing  how  to  yield.” 

From  childhood  we  have  all  known  the  story  of  the 
journey  of  the  brothers  into  Egypt;  of  their  meeting 
with  Joseph,  who  instantly  recognized  them,  although 
they  knew  him  not,  arrayed  in  splendor  and  grown  to 
manhood;  of  Joseph’s  eager  inquiries  for  his  father  and 
little  Benjamin  his  mother’s  son;  and  of  his  order  that 
no  more  corn  should  be  sold  them  if  they  failed  to  bring 
Benjamin  with  them  when  they  came  again.  In  the  text 
we  are  told  that  upon  their  return  with  the  message 
Jacob’s  heart  sank.  He  did  not  believe  them.  He  was 
troubled  with  many  thoughts.  After  Joseph  was  lost  the 
patriarch  turned  to  Benjamin,  Rachel’s  other  son,  and  he 
made  him  the  favorite.  Notice,  in  passing,  that  the 
brothers  gained  nothing  by  their  sin  against  Joseph. 
They  disposed  of  one  favorite,  the  object  of  their  hatred 
and  envy,  only  to  find  another  and  less  acceptable  ”  little 
ruler  ”  set  up  in  his  place. 

Jacob  had  seen  famine-time  before.  It  may  be  he 
hoped  the  present  supplies  would  hold  out  until  rain  fell ; 
but  day  after  day  dragged  on ;  the  dearth  and  drought 
grew  worse  and  worse ;  the  corn  of  Egypt  was  consumed  ; 
the  cattle  were  dying,  his  grandchildren  crying  for  bread. 
Must  Benjamin  go  ?  Then  it  was  that  Jacob’s  faith  failed. 
God  had  forgotten  to  be  gracious.  For  the  first  time  in 
his  life  murmurs,  murmurs  of  despondency  and  doubt, 
framed  themselves  upon  lips  that  were  wont  to  utter  pre¬ 
vailing  prayer.  His  sons  urged  him  to  let  Benjamin  go. 
But  he  would  not  yield.  ”  My  son,”  he  replied,  “  shall 
not  go  down  with  you ;  for  his  brother  is  dead,  and  he  is 


The  Famine-Time. 


183 

left  alone;  if  mischief  befall  him  by  the  way  in  which  ye 
go,  then  shall  ye  bring  down  my  gray  hairs  with  sorrow 
to  the  grave.”  Notice  also  the  injustice  and  petulancy 
of  his  rebuke  to  Judah:  “  Wherefore  dealt  ye  so  ill  with 
me  as  to  tell  the  man  whether  ye  had  yet  a  brother  ?  ” 
To  all  the  brothers  he  uttered  the  lament  of  the  text: 

Me  have  ye  bereaved  of  my  children;  Joseph  is  not, 
and  Simeon  is  not,  and  ye  will  take  Benjamin  away:  All 
these  things  are  against  me.”  We  are  not  told  that  he 
prayed  for  guidance  or  even  for  deliverance.  His  faith 
had  failed.  At  length,  however,  he  was  forced  to  act, 
and  yielding  to  Judah’s  plea,  and  placing  this  son  of 
Leah  in  command,  he  said,  “  Take  Benjamin,  ‘  Arise  and 
go  unto  the  man  ’  and  buy  more  corn.” 

In  Jacob’s  despairing  cry,  “All  these  things  are  against 
me,”  we  may  hear  the  expression  of  our  own  faithless¬ 
ness  in  seasons  of  depression,  worry,  or  doubt,  and  the 
rebuke  it  receives.  All  these  things  were  really  for  him, 
not  against  him.  The  saying  was  false.  Joseph  was 
alive,  ruling  in  Egypt.  Simeon  was  safe  with  his 
brother.  No  evil  should  befall  little  Benjamin.  The 
famine  was  his  friend,  not  his  foe;  it  was  designed  to 
force  him  away  from  Canaan  and  its  dangers  into  the 
safety  of  Goshen  by  the  Nile  bank.  All  these  things 
were  working  together  for  his  good.  But  he  knew  it 
not,  believed  it  not;  therefore  he  worried,  complained, 
despaired.  If  he  has  endured  many  chastisements  and 
tribulations  in  the  past  this  is  the  culmination  of  them 
all,  for  now  he  finds  no  help  in  his  God.  We  can  im¬ 
agine  his  forlorn  condition.  All  his  sons  are  absent  and 
in  danger.  During  weary  days  and  weeks  he  waits, 
watches,  and  suffers,  “  a  prey  to  fears,  suspicions,  sur¬ 
mises.”  There  were  no  postmen,  no  telegraph  wires. 


184 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


And  he  found  no  help  in  looking  upward.  In  losing 
faith  for  the  time  being  in  the  goodness  of  God  he  ex¬ 
perienced  in  all  its  bitterness  the  misery  of  hope  deferred 
as  he  waited,  imagining  and  conjuring  up  misfortunes  the 
direst,  torturing  himself  with  weary  worryings. 

St.  Paul  exhorted  the  Philippians,  “  Be  careful  for 
nothing  ” — Be  full  of  care  for  nothing;  or,  more  literally, 
In  nothing  be  anxious.  That  is  to  say,  “  Do  not  fret  or 
worry  or  borrow  trouble.  Don’t  cross  the  bridge  before 
you  come  to  it.  Live  by  the  day.  Trust  God  for  the 
morrow.  ‘  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof.’  ” 
Yet  we  worry  and  at  seasons  fail  to  see  God’s  love  and 
care  for  us  in  our  distress.  In  Jacob  such  a  state  of  mind 
indicated  a  fall  from  grace ;  and  to  this  day  it  is,  in  all 
who  give  way  to  it,  an  unfailing  evidence  of  spiritual 
declension. 

All  things  are  against  me  and  worse  will  come.  ’ ’  This 
is  the  general  form  of  the  disease.  In  foreboding  fears 
we  look  forward,  anxiously  anticipating  some  evil  day, 
some  insurmountable  difficulty,  some  overwhelming  ca¬ 
lamity — we  know  not  what.  These  galling  and  needless 
self-tortures  canker  and  as  they  grow  eat  out  the  life  of 
faith.  How  true  is  the  old  saying  that  the  misfortunes 
hardest  to  bear  are  those  which  never  happen!  Never¬ 
theless,  we  worry,  although  we  know  that  the  worrying 
does  no  good,  and  that  it  is  the  deadliest  foe  of  human 
happiness  and  usefulness. 

In  thinking  of  our  circumstances  we  often  fall  into  de¬ 
jection.  “  If  we  had  this  or  that ;  if  things  were  different !  ” 
Those  who  have  property  worry  for  fear  of  losing  it; 
those  who  have  none  fear  that  they  may  come  to  want. 
We  worry  on  our  children’s  account,  over  their  present 
and  their  future,  and  our  disquietude  is  accepted  by  them 


The  Famine-Time. 


185 

either  with  amusement  or  with  anger,  rarely  with  grati¬ 
tude.  We  worry,  too,  over  our  health.  The  patent 
medicine  advertisements  which  describe  symptoms  are 
far  more  eagerly  and  widely  read  than  the  novels  of  the 
season.  Our  aches  and  pains,  our  prospects  of  an  early 
grave  —  these  form  an  unfailing  and  fascinating  subject 
of  conversation,  when  we  can  secure  a  hearer.  To  take 
care  of  our  health  is  undoubtedly  a  Christian  duty;  to 
worry  about  it,  to  think  of  it  constantly,  is  the  surest 
way  to  break  ourselves  down.  No  slave  of  worry  lives 
long.  Jacob  shortened  his  life  by  this  folly  and  died  a 
quarter  of  a  century  younger  than  Isaac,  his  calm,  even- 
tempered  father.  It  is  worry,  not  work,  that  kills. 

Then,  too,  anxiety  turns  inward  and  we  worry  about  our 
religious  state  and  standing.  Sometimes  we  say,  “  I  won¬ 
der  if  I  am  a  true  Christian  ?  I  long  to  know  by  some 
sure  sign  or  proof,  ‘  Do  I  love  the  Lord  or  no  ?  ’  ”  And 
such  evidence  not  being  granted,  we  anxiously  ask,  “Am 
I  His,  or  am  I  not  ?  ”  More  frequently  we  question  the 
love  of  God.  Jacob  felt  that  the  Lord  had  forsaken  him. 
There  are  problems  in  our  life  and  in  the  life  of  the  world 
we  cannot  solve.  How  can  God  love  us  when  He  per¬ 
mits  the  evil,  the  pain,  the  inequalities,  the  injustices  we 
see  on  every  hand  ?  How  can  we  know  that  God  is, 
hears  us,  loves  us  ?  What  are  the  proofs  of  life  beyond 
the  grave  ?  In  Jacob’s  case,  because  we  know  the  end 
of  God’s  plan  for  him,  we  can  say  that  he  should  have 
prayed,  put  his  trust  in  God,  taken  his  mind  off  himself 
and  his  perplexities,  busied  himself  with  the  work  of  his 
plantation,  leaving  the  issue  with  the  Almighty.  In  our 
own  anxieties  we  have  these  resources  and  more;  for 
Jacob  had  not,  as  we  have,  the  assurances  of  Him  who 
is  the  revelation  and  the  representative  of  the  Father. 


i86 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


The  word  and  the  promise  of  Jesus  Christ  should  sup¬ 
port  our  faith.  Mere  human  philosophers  at  the  best 
can  only  tell  us  “  not  to  put  on  our  cloaks  in  mid¬ 
summer  because  we  may  need  them  at  Christmas.” 
But  we  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  once  lived  upon  earth 
and  that  we  have  His  words.  The  difference  between  His 
utterances  and  the  wisdom  of  all  other  philosophers  is  so 
marked  that  He  is  everywhere  acknowledged  as  a  master. 
Were  He  only  a  man  there  is  every  reason  why  we  should 
accept  His  words.  We  yield  to  authority  in  art,  science, 
surgery,  mechanics.  In  His  sphere  He  is  the  recognized 
authority.  And  He  said,  over  and  over  again,  that  there 
is  a  future  life  for  man ;  that  God,  who  cares  for  the  birds 
and  feeds  them  and  provides  raiment  for  the  lilies,  will 
much  more  care  for  His  own  children,  made  in  His  own 
image;  and  His  constant  question  of  rebuke  was,  “  How 
is  it  that  ye  have  no  faith  ?  ” — no  faith  in  the  goodness 
and  power  of  God,  no  faith  in  an  eternity  so  soon  to 
come,  wherein  all  wrongs  will  be  redressed,  all  tears 
dried.  But  He  was  God  as  well  as  man,  proving  His 
Divinity  by  His  works,  by  His  Cross  and  Passion,  by 
His  glorious  Resurrection  from  the  dead.  To  lack  faith 
in  Him  and  His  repeated  assurances  that  God  loves  and 
cares  for  us,  that  trials  and  difficulties  are  evidences  of 
His  love,  is  inexcusable. 

In  due  time  Jacob  discovered  that  all  these  tribulations 
were  for  him  and  not  against  him.  Let  Passion  Week 
be  at  once  the  rebuke  of  our  faithless  worries  and  their 


cure. 


THE  WAGONS  OF  EGYPT. 


THURSDAY  AFTER  THE  FIFTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“  And  when  he  saw  the  wagons  which  Joseph  had  sent  to  carry  him,  the 
spirit  of  Jacob  their  father  revived  :  And  Israel  said,  It  is  enough  ;  Joseph 
my  son  is  yet  alive  :  I  will  go  and  see  him  before  I  die.” — Gen.  xlv.  27,  28. 

IN  famine-time  Jacob  lost  faith  in  the  loving-kindness 
of  the  Lord.  He  felt  that  God  was  against  him,  and 
his  faithlessness  found  expression  in  the  language  of  de¬ 
spair.  Little  Benjamin  and  all  his  sons  on  the  long  and 
dangerous  journey  for  the  corn  of  Egypt  —  the  old  man 
brooded  in  solitary  sadness,  seeing  no  smiling  face  behind 
this  “  frowning  providence.”  In  the  narrative  before 
us  to-day  we  learn  how  Jacob  recovered  his  lost  faith  and 
found  his  lost  son  Joseph. 

1.  One  morning  the  old  chieftain  is  awakened  from 
his  stupor  of  gloomy  foreboding  by  the  announcement 
that  his  sons  are  returning  from  their  long  journey. 
He  receives  them  in  his  chamber;  eagerly  he  embraces 
little  Benjamin;  anxiously  he  counts  over  the  names  of 
the  ten.  They  are  there,  all  safe  and  well.  Corn  is  in 
their  sacks  and  on  their  faces  the  light  of  a  great  joy. 
As  best  they  can  they  break  the  joyful  tidings:  ”  Joseph 
is  yet  alive,  and  he  is  governor  over  all  the  land  of 
Egypt.”  When  he  heard  their  words  ”  Jacob’s  heart 
fainted  ” — his  heart  grew  chill  or  seemed  to  cease  its 
beating,  ”  for  he  believed  them  not.”  More  than  once  in 
the  past  these  sons  had  deceived  him  and  now  he  natur¬ 
ally  suspects  another  falsehood.  The  brothers  go  over 

187 


i88 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


the  details  of  their  story.  They  speak  of  Joseph’s  royal 
rank  and  rule.  They  rehearse  his  words.  Especially 
would  they  dwell  upon  the  fact  that  he  had  forgiven 
them  for  selling  him.  Joseph  said,  they  all  declare, 
“  Be  not  grieved,  nor  angry  with  yourselves,  that  ye  sold 
me  hither:  for  God  did  send  me  before  you  to  preserve 
life.  It  was  not  you  that  sent  me  hither  but  God.” 

Jacob  still  refused  to  believe  them.  Then  they  would 
show  the  presents  Joseph  had  given  them  and  sent  to 
him;  with  childish  delight  Benjamin  would  exhibit  his 
“  three  hundred  pieces  of  silver  ”  and  his  “  five  changes 
of  raiment.”  The  money  and  the  fine  clothes  making 
some  impression,  the  brothers  besought  their  father  to 
come  to  the  door  and  see  the  chariots  of  Egypt.  Yield¬ 
ing  to  their  entreaties  he  left  his  chamber,  and,  in  the 
artless  and  pathetic  words  of  the  Scripture,  “  when  he 
saw  the  wagons  which  Joseph  had  sent  to  carry  him,  the 
spirit  of  Jacob  their  father  revived.”  The  numbness  and 
coldness  left  his  heart,  “  and  Israel  said,”  for  with  his 
awakening  faith  his  new  name  is  restored  to  him  again, 
“It  is  enough!  Joseph  my  son  is  yet  alive;  I  will  go 
down  and  see  him  before  I  die.” 

When  Jacob  saw  the  wagons  of  Egypt  his  faith  re¬ 
vived.  So  to-day  there  are  many  who  find  in  the  objec¬ 
tive  proofs  of  religion  great  aids  to  faith.  An  answered 
prayer,  poetical  justice  upon  an  evil-doer,  a  special  provi¬ 
dence,  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of  the  sacraments — 
these  are  encouragements  to  believe  in  God.  And  to 
each  of  us  come  many  marks  and  tokens  of  another 
country,  conveyances  not  of  this  world’s  manufacture, 
proofs  of  the  existence  and  love  of  a  Ruler  in  that  land. 

2.  Losing  no  time,  “  Israel  took  his  journey  with  all 
that  he  had.”  No  sooner  were  his  doubts  of  God 


The  Wagons  of  Egypt. 


189 


dispelled  than  his  mind  resumed  its  wonted  activity.  As 
he  journeyed  he  thought  of  the  unsearchable  wisdom 
which  had  brought  these  strange  things  to  pass,  and  he 
realized,  as  he  had  not  at  first,  that  this  journey  into 
Egypt  was  a  momentous  undertaking  and  would  be 
fraught  with  unending  consequences.  His  longing  to 
see  Joseph  was  intense.  But  Canaan  was  the  Holy  Land  ; 
Egypt  was  a  land  of  idols;  there,  too,  he  might  become 
a  subject  and  be  no  more  a  prince.  Therefore,  when  he 
reached  Beersheba  on  the  very  borders  of  the  great  desert, 
the  last  halting  place  in  the  Promised  Land,  while  it  was 
yet  possible  to  return,  he  acted  the  part  of  Israel  and 
sought  an  interview  with  his  Divine  Friend.  He  offered 
sacrifices,  asked  forgiveness  for  his  season  of  distrust,  re¬ 
turned  thanks  for  the  preservation  of  Joseph,  and  be¬ 
sought  guidance  for  the  future.  Whenever  the  believer 
earnestly  sets  himself  to  the  work  of  praying  that  his  duty 
may  be  made  clear,  light  falls  upon  his  pathway.  It  was 
so  with  Jacob.  He  received  a  definite  and  gracious  an¬ 
swer:  “  In  the  visions  of  the  night  ”  he  seemed  to  hear 
a  voice  saying,  “  Fear  not  to  go  down  into  Egypt;  for  I 
will  there  make  of  thee  a  great  nation :  I  will  go  down 
with  thee  into  Egypt ;  and  I  will  also  surely  bring  thee 
up  again:  and  Joseph  shall  put  his  hand  upon  thine 
eyes,”  shall  close  thine  eyes  in  death.  All  doubts  being 
thus  removed  the  caravan  proceeded  on  the  journey. 

3.  At  this  point  in  the  narrative  we  are  given  a  list  of 
the  names  and  numbers  of  Jacob’s  household.  His  com¬ 
pany  consisted  of  twelve  sons  and  seventy  souls,  thus 
reminding  us  of  the  twelve  Apostles  and  seventy  disciples 
sent  forth  by  Jesus  Christ.  The  ancient  commentators 
remark  that  Jacob’s  household  at  once  began  to  increase 
almost  miraculously,  and  was,  in  this  growth,  prophetic 


190  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

of  the  increase  of  the  Twelve  and  the  Seventy,  the 
Christian  Church,  sent  from  the  Holy  Land  into  the 
heathen  world.  In  each  instance  the  grain  of  mustard 
seed  became  a  mighty  tree.  Of  the  literal  Israel  Moses 
said  in  his  day,  “  Thy  fathers  went  down  into  Egypt 
with  three  score  and  ten  persons,  and  now  the  Lord  thy 
God  hath  made  thee  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multi¬ 
tude.”  Of  the  spiritual  Israel,  soon  after  its  work  began, 
we  read  in  the  book  of  Acts  that  there  were  “  three 
thousand  believers,”  and  again  of  “  many  thousands  of 
Jews  that  believed  while  at  the  end  of  the  second 
century  Tertullian  declared,  “  We  have  filled  the  world.” 

4.  In  due  time  the  travellers  approach  the  capital  city 
of  Egypt.  The  old  leader,  remembering  his  duty  to  his 
followers,  restrains  his  impulsive  eagerness  for  the  sight 
of  Joseph’s  face,  calls  a  halt,  and  acts  with  his  accus¬ 
tomed  prudence  and  caution.  The  famine  has  reduced 
him  to  poverty;  he  comes,  virtually,  as  a  suppliant;  but 
he  will  make  no  needless  confession  of  weakness.  He 
assumes  the  attitude  of  a  prince  who  is  accepting  the  in¬ 
vitation  of  another  prince.  With  all  the  state  possible 
he  sends  forward  Judah  to  notify  Joseph  and  Pharaoh  of 
his  arrival  and  then  awaits,  as  an  equal,  the  honors  of  a 
courteous  welcome.  It  was  well  done.  To  have  ad¬ 
vanced  unheralded  through  the  streets  of  a  foreign  city 
would  have  been  unsafe  and  undignified.  The  description 
of  the  meeting  of  father  and  son  after  the  cruel  separation 
of  twenty-two  years  is  beyond  comment.  “  And  Joseph 
made  ready  his  chariot  and  went  up  to  meet  Israel  his 
father  —  and  he  fell  on  his  neck  and  wept  on  his  neck  a 
good  while.” 

5.  The  story  of  Joseph,  while  but  an  episode  in  the 
history  of  his  greater  father,  nevertheless  in  its  record  of 


The  Wagons  of  Egypt. 


191 

the  providential  opening  of  the  land  of  Egypt  contains 
much  to  strengthen  our  faith.  The  chapters  which  nar¬ 
rate  the  career  of  Joseph  in  the  ancient  metropolis  of  the 
world  introduce  many  Egyptian  words  and  phrases  into 
the  Hebrew  Scripture  and  abound  in  allusions  to  the 
social  and  political  customs  of  that  country  at  a  specified 
period  in  its  history.  Now,  modern  students  are  digging 
up  the  old  capital  and  have  deciphered  many  of  the 
writings  on  its  bricks  and  stones.  These  Egyptologists, 
many  of  them,  hold  no  brief  for  the  Bible,  yet  they  ad¬ 
mit  that  its  references  and  allusions  in  these  chapters  are 
correct.  Furthermore,  they  tell  the  German  school  of 
critics,  which  rejects  the  Mosaic  authorship  and  assigns 
the  narrative  to  the  time  of  the  kings  of  Israel,  or  later, 
that  these  words  and  phrases  do  not  fit  the  date  they 
have  surmised.  The  precise  date  of  the  document,  or  its 
authorship,  could  never  be  a  vital  matter  to  any  well- 
instructed  Churchman.  Our  attitude  toward  all  such 
questions  should  be  one  of  frank  desire  for  the  truth. 
We  do  not  fear  facts.  We  welcome  truth  and  seek  the 
light.  The  Creeds  of  the  Church  leave  us  free  to  accept 
all  discoveries  of  modern  science,  study,  or  research. 
But  the  truth  is  that  the  scholars  who  are  digging  into 
the  remains  of  ancient  Egypt  find  much  to  corroborate 
the  traditional  or  accepted  view  of  the  date  and  author¬ 
ship  of  the  chapters  before  us,  nothing  to  render  that 
view  untenable. 

Another  help  to  faith  is  the  designed  or  undesigned 
likeness  of  Joseph  to  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
assert  that  the  old  writer  was  conscious,  or  fully  con¬ 
scious,  of  that  resemblance;  but  we  can  see  it  in  its 
beauty  and  we  are  edified  by  it.  Take  one  point  only  in 
that  likeness.  Let  us  see  how  Joseph,  feeding  his  breth- 


192  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

ren  in  famine-time,  shadows  out  the  gifts  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  Holy  Communion.  Pharaoh  gave 
Joseph  an  Egyptian  name,  “  Zaphnath-paaneah,”  mean¬ 
ing  “  The  Saviour  of  the  World,”  or  “  The  Bread  of 
Life.”  He  to  whom  this  name  was  given  fed  his  breth¬ 
ren  at  his  own  table  in  his  own  house;  He  who  is  the 
true  Bread  of  Life  feeds  us  with  the  bread  and  wine  of 
His  own  sacrament  in  His  own  house,  and  we  sup  with 
Him  and  He  with  us.  Joseph  also  gave  his  brethren  pro¬ 
visions  for  the  way;  our  Joseph  says  to  us,  “  Strengthen 
yourselves  with  the  Bread  of  Life  now  whilst  you  are  in 
the  way;  arise  and  eat  of  My  flesh  and  drink  of  My 
blood,  because  the  journey  is  too  great  for  thee.”  In 
Goshen  also  he  fed  and  nourished  them,  thus  reminding 
us  of  that  true  land  of  Goshen  wherein  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  feeds  His  brethren  at  the  Marriage  Supper  of  the 
Lamb  and  reveals  Himself  to  them  face  to  face. 

Let  us  remember,  too,  that  while  the  bread  of  old 
which  Joseph  gave  his  brethren,  like  the  manna,  nour¬ 
ished  only  for  a  season  and  had  no  promise  of  the  life  to 
come,  the  Body  and  Blood  of  the  Lord  on  Christian  altars 
has  in  it  the  seed  of  immortality,  according  to  the  most 
sure  promise  of  the  Lord:  “This  is  the  bread  which 
cometh  down  from  heaven,  that  a  man  may  eat  thereof 
and  not  die ;  if  any  man  eateth  of  this  bread  he  shall  live 
forever.” 


THE  LAND  OF  GOSHEN. 


FRIDAY  AFTER  THE  FIFTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 

“And  Pharaoh  spake  unto  Joseph,  saying,  Thy  father  and  thy  brethren 
are  come  unto  thee  :  The  land  of  Egypt  is  before  thee  ;  in  the  best  of  the 
land  make  thy  father  and  brethren  to  dwell ;  in  the  land  of  Goshen  let 
them  dwell.” — Gen.  xlvii.  5,  6. 

THE  Pharaoh  of  Joseph’s  time  is  set  before  us  in  a 
most  attractive  light.  He  is  represented  as  a  strong 
man,  honorable  and  generous,  a  wise  ruler,  a  King  who 
believed  in  his  own  religion  and  sought  to  govern  his  life 
by  its  precepts.  It  was  a  gracious  Providence  which 
placed  the  future  fate  of  Jacob’s  family  at  the  disposal 
of  such  a  monarch,  for  he  was  willing  to  give  them  the 
best  of  the  land. 

In  the  passage  before  us  for  our  exposition  to-day,  the 
forty-seventh  and  the  forty-eighth  chapters  of  Genesis, 
we  have  an  account  of  Jacob’s  interview  with  Pharaoh  in 
the  King’s  palace,  a  brief  record  of  the  settlement  of  the 
chosen  family  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  and  then  we  are 
told  of  the  blessing  which  the  patriarch  bestowed  upon 
the  two  sons  of  Joseph.  Let  us  follow  these  three 
natural  divisions  of  the  narrative. 

1.  Tradition  has  designated  the  Pharaoh  before  whom 
Jacob  appeared  as  “  Apepi,  the  last  great  King  of  the 
Hyksos  dynasty,”  and  this  identification  is  accepted  by 
Canon  Rawlinson  and  other  authorities.  When  he  signi¬ 
fied  his  readiness  to  give  Jacob  audience,  Apepi  was  sur¬ 
rounded  by  princes  and  courtiers  and  royal  guards.  At 
13 


193 


i94 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


the  signal  Joseph,  the  Grand  Vizier,  magnificently  ap¬ 
parelled,  as  became  the  “  Governor  over  the  land,” 
advanced  towards  the  throne  escorting  his  father  through 
the  double  rows  of  guards.  The  old  man  probably  re¬ 
tained  the  simple  dress  of  his  native  hills  but  he  bore 
himself  with  ”  all  the  dignity  of  a  Great  Sheikh  whom 
no  outward  display  of  courtly  grandeur  could  discon¬ 
cert.”  As  he  walked  by  Joseph’s  side  he  may  have  said  to 
himself,  “  Would  that  Rachel  were  here,  if  but  for  a  mo¬ 
ment,  to  witness  her  Joseph’s  greatness.”  The  old  chief¬ 
tain  must  have  been  gratified  by  his  reception  and  dazzled 
by  the  magnificence  of  the  scene,  but  he  gave  no  outward 
sign  of  the  impression  made  upon  him.  With  perfect 
self-possession  he  stood  before  the  greatest  King  of  the 
age.  The  Prince  of  the  world  and  the  Prince  of  God 
were  face  to  face !  The  things  seen  and  temporal  and  the 
things  not  seen  and  eternal  had  here  their  living  repre¬ 
sentatives.  Joseph  intended  to  manage  the  interview. 
Doubtless  he  expected  that  his  father,  according  to  the 
usage  of  the  court,  would  prostrate  himself  before  the 
throne,  receive  a  royal  greeting,  and  at  once  withdraw. 
The  Psalmist  tells  us  that  Joseph  bound  the  Egyptian 
princes  at  his  pleasure  and  taught  their  senators  wisdom. 
We  know  that  he  was  a  shrewd  politician  as  well  as  a  far- 
seeing  statesman  and  that  he  was  now  in  the  prime  of  all 
his  powers.  But  Jacob  waves  aside  his  distinguished  son. 
He  himself  is  the  great  man  of  the  company.  He  stands 
erect.  He  has  no  prostration  to  make.  On  the  con¬ 
trary,  he  raises  his  hand  to  bless  Pharaoh  as  the  less  is 
blessed  of  the  better.  Thus  the  old  hero,  conscious  of 
his  own  greatness,  calmly  assumes  the  superiority.  And 
the  chief  prince  of  the  world  humbles  himself  before  this 
strong  old  man  of  God.  As  a  modern  preacher  has  said, 


The  Land  of  Goshen. 


195 


a  “  spiritual  grandeur  invested  this  aged  and  weary  pil¬ 
grim,  and  drew  the  likeness  of  a  crown  around  his  brow 
as  he  stood  before  the  Egyptian  King.  Aged  he  was, 
and  bowed,  and  sad,  and  weary.  He  halted,  too,  as  one 
who  has  been  sore  wounded  in  the  battle  of  life.”  There 
were  furrows  on  his  brow,  and  lines  in  his  cheek,  “  elo¬ 
quent  of  tears  and  cares,”  while  the  intellectual  light 
upon  his  face  was  somewhat  dimmed  by  the  shadows  of 
a  suffering  life.  As  a  prince  having  power  with  God  and 
man  Jacob  stood  before  Apepi  and  prevailed.  The  King 
recognized  the  patriarch’s  spiritual  power,  accepted  his 
blessing,  and  graciously  entered  into  conversation  with 
him.  “  And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Jacob,  How  old  art 
thou  ?  ”  Jacob  replied,  “  The  days  of  the  years  of  my 
pilgrimage  are  an  hundred  and  thirty  years:  few  and  evil 
have  the  days  of  the  years  of  my  life  been.”  The  nar¬ 
rative  does  not  continue  the  conversation.  We  must  as¬ 
sume,  however,  that  there  followed  some  discussion  of 
the  terms  upon  which  Jacob’s  family  should  settle  in  the 
land  of  Goshen  and  a  final  ratification  of  those  terms. 
Once  more  Jacob  blessed  the  King,  and,  leaning  upon 
Joseph’s  arm,  left  the  throne-room  with  a  heart  over¬ 
flowing  with  gratitude  and  triumph. 

2.  After  Pharaoh’s  consent  had  been  secured  we  are 
told  that  Joseph  settled  his  father  and  his  brothers  in  the 
fertile  and  well-watered  land  of  Goshen.  “  And  Israel 
dwelt  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  country  of  Goshen ; 
and  they  had  possessions  therein,  and  grew,  and  multi¬ 
plied  exceedingly.”  The  narrative  is  also  careful  to  state 
that  Jacob  lived  seventeen  years  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  we  remember  that  Joseph  was  just  seventeen  when 
he  was  sold  away  from  his  father.  Thus  Joseph  nour¬ 
ished  and  protected  his  father  in  his  old  age  through  as 


196  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

many  years  as  his  father  had  cared  for  him  in  his  child¬ 
hood.  In  many  respects  the  closing  years  of  Jacob’s  life 
were  his  best  and  happiest  years.  His  children  were 
around  him  and  his  peace  was  made  with  God  and  man. 
In  the  land  of  Goshen  something  must  have  come  to 
him  of  that  conviction  to  which  a  great  English  writer, 
J.  R.  Green,  has  given  expression:  “  What  seems  to 
grow  fairer  to  me  as  life  goes  by  is  the  love  and  grace  and 
tenderness  of  it — not  its  wit  and  cleverness  and  grandeur 
and  knowledge,  grand  as  knowledge  is;  but  just  the 
laughter  of  little  children,  and  the  friendships  of  friends, 
and  the  cosy  talk  by  the  fireside,  and  the  sight  of  flowers, 
and  the  sound  of  music.”  But  in  Goshen  Jacob  also 
found  employment  for  his  energies  of  mind  and  body.  He 
superintended  the  settlement  of  the  land,  and  took  in 
hand  the  delicate  task  of  maintaining  amicable  relations 
with  the  Egyptian  power  on  the  one  border  and  with  the 
barbarians  of  the  desert  on  the  other.  Above  all,  Jacob 
had  the  opportunity  of  impressing  his  own  personality 
upon  the  lives  and  destinies  of  his  descendants.  Rarely 
has  any  man,  in  any  age,  had  such  an  opportunity  to 
mould  the  future  of  a  nation,  and  never,  surely,  has  it 
been  so  nobly  and  so  successfully  improved.  In  that 
even-tide  of  peace  and  prosperity  he  was  graciously 
spared  to  accomplish  a  great  work  for  his  people,  to 
know  that 


“  Something  ere  the  end, 
Some  work  of  noble  note  may  yet  be  done  ;  ” 


but  over  and  beyond  all,  these  last  years  must  have  given 
the  seal  of  completion  to  that  “  work  of  noble  note 
which  the  God  of  the  birthright  had  wrought  in  Jacob’s 
soul.  The  sorrows  of  the  past,  some  of  which  his  own 


The  Land  of  Goshen. 


197 


sins  or  the  sins  of  others  had  brought  upon  him,  would 
work  their  perfect  work  of  refinement  and  purification. 
As  he  thought  of  these  sorrows  in  seasons  of  meditation 
he  must  have  marvelled  at  the  grace  which  had  supported 
him  through  them  all.  The  Jewish  rabbis  speak  of  the 
“seven”  afflictions  of  Jacob:  the  persecution  of  Esau, 
the  injustice  of  Laban,  the  lameness  received  from  the 
angel  at  Peniel,  the  dishonor  of  his  daughter  Dinah,  the 
loss  of  Joseph,  the  imprisonment  of  Simeon,  and  the  de¬ 
parture  of  Benjamin  for  Egypt.  But  his  sorrows  were 
more  than  seven.  To  the  list  given  we  might  add  the 
loss  of  his  property  in  famine-time,  the  moral  and  mental 
failure  of  Reuben  his  first-born,  and  the  chiefest  of  all  his 
sorrows,  the  death  of  his  youthful  wife  Rachel.  But  in 
the  evening  of  his  days  in  the  land  of  Goshen  Jacob 
could  say,  It  is  good  for  me  that  I  have  been  in  trouble  ; 
having  sowed  many  harvests  in  tears,  I  now  reap  in  joy.” 

3.  When  “  the  time  drew  near  that  Israel  must  die  ” 
he  gave  repeated  expression  to  his  resignation  and  thank¬ 
ful  appreciation  of  the  goodness  of  God  under  all  the  dis¬ 
pensations  of  His  providence.  He  ordered  that  his  body 
should  be  buried  in  the  Holy  Land.  Then  he  called  for 
Joseph’s  two  sons,  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  laid  his  hands 
upon  their  heads  and  blessed  them  in  the  beautiful  words 
which  to-day  we  may  consider  in  one  aspect  only,  namely, 
as  an  expression  of  his  own  thought  of  the  Lord  his  God : 
“  God,  before  whom  my  fathers  Abraham  and  Isaac  did 
walk,  the  God  which  fed  me  all  my  life  long  unto  this 
day,  the  Angel  which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless 
the  lads.”  In  these  words  Jacob  bore  his  testimony  to 
the  faithfulness  of  the  Lord.  All  the  vicissitudes  as  well 
as  all  the  joys  of  a  long,  eventful  life  are  counted  by  him 
to  be  proofs  of  the  goodness  and  love  of  God.  The 


198 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


promises  made  him  at  Bethel  have  been  kept.  His  God 
is  the  promise-keeping  God.  He  acknowledges  that  the 
guiding  hand  of  his  Heavenly  Father  has  led  him  through 
all  dangers,  fed  him  all  his  life  long,  and  that  the  angel 
of  the  Covenant  has  redeemed  him  from  all  his  sins. 

If  now  while  it  is  called  to-day  we  also  live  in  the  same 
loving  faith  that  all  our  temporal  needs  shall  be  provided 
for  and  that  we  shall  be  redeemed  from  all  our  sins,  then 
our  last  end  may  be  like  Jacob’s;  and  in  that  hour  which 
must  surely  come  to  each,  we  know  not  how  soon,  we 
may  have  the  same  blessed  assurance  and  be  able  to  say, 

I  have  fought  the  good  fight,  I  have  kept  the  faith, 
henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  righteous¬ 
ness.”  “  To  me  to  live  is  Christ,  to  die  is  gain.” 


THE  TWO  SONS  OF  JOSEPH. 


SATURDAY  AFTER  THE  FIFTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 


“  God,  before  whom  my  fathers  Abraham  and  Isaac  did  walk,  the  God 
which  fed  me  all  my  life  long  unto  this  day,  the  Angel  which  redeemed  me 
from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads.” — Gen.  xlviii.  15,  16. 


HE  mountain  streamlet  flows  on  unceasinglv  towards 


1  the  great  deep.  We  see  here  the  working  of  a  law 
of  nature.  The  streamlet  cannot  but  obey  the  law. 
Yet  we  almost  feel  as  we  watch  it  go  leaping  and  bound¬ 
ing  along  that  it  loves  is  course  and  knows  its  true  home. 
The  largeness  and  freedom  that  are  before  it  seem  to  lend 
to  it  their  charm,  and  you  would  not  persuade  it  if  you 
could  that  it  will  be  lost  in  the  vastness  to  which  it  is 
hastening.  The  ocean  claims  it  for  its  own,  and  the 
streamlet  seems  to  love  to  be  thus  claimed.  It  should 
be  the  same  in  human  life.  The  love  and  the  knowledge 
of  God  are  for  the  lives  of  His  children  and  it  is  a  law  of 
our  nature  that  we  should  go  to  Him. 

For  years  Jacob’s  life  has  been  turning  in  the  direction 
of  the  Divine  and  now  the  end  is  near.  When  God 
wrestled  with  him  at  Peniel  it  was  significant  that  the 
great  struggle  in  which  he  gained  the  name  of  Israel,  the 
Prince  of  God,  took  place  upon  the  banks  of  a  mountain 
streamlet  called  Jabbok,  for  Jabbok  means  “  the  wrestler.” 
This  stream  was  probably  so  named  because  it  wrestled 
and  struggled  and  turned  upon  its  course  in  forcing  its 
passage  through  the  rocky  hills  which  stood  in  its  path¬ 
way.  Thus  in  its  name  as  well  as  in  itself  the  stream 


199 


200 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


was  an  emblem  of  Jacob’s  life.  For  the  stream  and  the 
life  flowed  on  to  the  deeps.  Sometimes,  too,  the  most 
tumultuous  waters  will  find  a  last  level  ere  they  reach  the 
sea  and  flow  on  calmly  to  mingle  with  its  strength 
and  peace.  So  the  wrestling  brook  of  Jacob’s  life  found 
at  last  a  quiet  haven  in  which  to  rest  ere  it  flowed  out  to 
its  final  home  in  the  mighty  deep. 

The  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
which  recounts  the  triumphs  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the 
heroes  of  the  Old  Covenant,  selects  the  incident  before  us 
as  the  most  striking  illustration  of  Jacob’s  faith  in  God. 
“  By  faith,”  the  chapter  declares,  “  Jacob  when  he  was 
a-dying  blessed  the  two  sons  of  Joseph,  and  worshipped, 
leaning  upon  the  top  of  his  staff.”  Why  does  the  New 
Testament  thus  emphasize  this  blessing  ? 

In  the  first  place  it  was  a  formal  adoption  of  Ephraim 
and  Manasseh.  “  They  shall  be  mine,”  as  my  own  sons, 
said  the  patriarch.  These  two  sons  of  Joseph  were  no 
longer  to  be  Jacob’s  grandsons,  but  his  own  sons,  and 
were  to  take  their  places  as  heads  of  the  Tribes  of  Israel. 
Joseph  was  not  to  be  represented  by  a  tribe  bearing  his 
own  name;  he  was  to  be  honored  above  his  brothers  by 
having  two  of  the  Twelve  Tribes  named  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh.  This  adoption  brought  the  present  number 
of  the  tribes  up  to  thirteen,  but  the  original  and  symbol¬ 
ical  number  of  twelve  was  subsequently  secured  once 
more  by  the  removal  of  the  tribe  of  Levi  from  secular 
employments  and  possessions  when  the  Levites  were  set 
apart  to  the  priestly  office.  By  faith  Jacob,  in  this  act 
of  adoption,  conferred  upon  his  favorite  son  Joseph  a 
double  portion  of  the  inheritance  and  invested  him  with 
the  primogeniture  which  weak  and  sinful  Reuben,  the 
first-born,  had  forfeited.  The  birthright  was,  therefore. 


The  Two  Sons  of  Joseph. 


201 


divided,  its  temporal  advantages  being  assigned  to 
Joseph,  its  spiritual  privileges  to  Judah,  to  whom  was 
made  over  the  honor  “  of  being  the  next  connecting  link 
in  the  chain  of  grace,  leading  on  and  down  to  the  coming 
of  the  Saviour.”  Christian  teachers  have  always  spirit¬ 
ualized  this  adoption  of  Joseph’s  sons.  They  have  seen 
in  it  a  foreshadowing  of  that  adoption  whereby  we  cry, 
“Abba,  Father;”  an  adoption  by  which  the  redeemed  are 
made  inheritors  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  whereof  He 
Himself  is  the  true  and  rightful  heir. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  also  that  as  Jacob  worshipped  lean¬ 
ing  upon  the  top  of  the  staff  with  which  he  passed  over 
the  Jordan  in  his  lonely  youth,  there  was  in  his  face  and 
manner  some  such  overwhelming  manifestation  of  faith 
that  Joseph  yielded  to  it  and  made  that  faith  his  own. 
His  sons  through  their  Egyptian  mother,  Asenath,  took 
rank  with  the  nobility  of  the  land.  This  connection  to¬ 
gether  with  their  father’s  great  political  power  would 
have  opened  the  highest  position  in  the  realm  to  Ephraim 
and  Manasseh.  But  Joseph,  a  clear-headed  man  of  the 
world,  was  ready  to  sacrifice  these  prospects  in  order  to 
secure  for  his  sons  an  inheritance  of  which  Jacob’s  faith 
in  the  promises  of  God  was  the  sole  guaranty  and  title 
deed.  His  father’s  faith  that  in  the  land  of  Canaan  his 
descendants  should  become  a  rich  and  powerful  nation 
conquered  every  doubt  in  Joseph’s  mind,  and  without 
hesitation  he  consented  that  his  sons  should  be  numbered 
among  believers  and  give  themselves  up  to  the  service  of 
the  God  of  Israel.  He  brought  the  lads  forward  and 
caused  them  to  kneel,  the  elder  at  Jacob’s  right  hand, 
the  younger  at  his  left.  But  Jacob  crossed  his  hands, 
placing  his  right  hand  upon  Ephraim’s  head  and  his  left 
hand  upon  Manasseh’s  head.  This  ”  displeased  Joseph,” 


202  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

who  said,  “Not  so,  my  father:  for  this  is  the  first-born; 
put  thy  right  hand  upon  this  head.”  Jacob,  however, 
had  made  no  mistake.  He  had  read  correctly  the  char¬ 
acters  of  the  lads;  furthermore,  he  was  Divinely  guided. 
He  was  free  from  the  weakness  and  wilfulness  which  his 
own  father,  Isaac,  had  displayed  under  similar  circum¬ 
stances.  “  I  know  it,  my  son,  I  know  it,”  he  replied  to 
Joseph,  “  he  also  shall  become  a  people,  and  he  also 
shall  be  great :  but  truly  his  younger  brother  shall  be 
greater  than  he.”  While  they  knelt  thus  before  him, 
with  his  arms  forming  the  sign  of  the  cross,  the  patriarch 
bestowed  upon  the  young  men  the  blessing  of  the  text : 

God,  before  whom  my  fathers  Abraham  and  Isaac  did 
walk,  the  God  which  fed  me  all  my  life  long  unto  this 
day,  the  Angel  which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless 
the  lads.  ” 

In  the  next  chapter  Jacob  seems  to  use  a  three-fold 
name  for  God,  and  this  benediction  certainly  takes  a 
triple  form. 

When  Jacob  said,  “  God,  before  whom  my  fathers 
Abraham  and  Isaac  did  walk,”  he  called  upon  the  name 
of  the  one  true  eternal  God.  The  young  men  must  for¬ 
get  the  idols  of  Egypt.  The  God  of  Israel,  the  God  of 
all  gods,  should  be  their  God.  “  And,”  added  the  patri¬ 
arch,  “  let  my  name  be  named  upon  them  ”;  henceforth 
forever  the  God  of  the  Covenant  shall  be  known  as  the 
God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of 
Jacob ;  Jacob  added  his  own  name  to  the  name  of  the 
God  of  his  fathers. 

The  God  which  fed  me  all  my  life  long  unto  this 
day.”  The  word  translated  “  fed  ”  means  more  than 
provided  with  earthly  food  and  drink.  It  is  a  word  which 
signifies  performing  the  duties  of  a  shepherd.  The  God 


The  Two  Sons  of  Joseph. 


203 


which  “  shepherded  ”  me  all  my  life  long.  David  sings, 

The  Lord  is  my  shepherd,”  but  Jacob  first  conceived 
and  gave  utterance  to  that  “  metaphor  which  has  sur¬ 
vived  temple,  and  sacrifice,  and  priesthood,  and  will  sur¬ 
vive  even  earth  itself ;  for  ‘  I  am  the  Good  Shepherd  ’  is 
true  to-day  as  when  first  spoken  by  Jesus,  and  the  ‘  Lamb 
which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  lead  them,’  and 
be  their  Shepherd,  when  the  flock  is  carried  to  the  upper 
pastures,  and  the  springs  that  never  fail.”  Jacob  had 
been  a  shepherd  all  his  life  long.  In  his  speech  to  Laban 
he  gave  a  vivid  description  of  the  cares  and  dangers  of 
such  a  calling.  But  he  loved  the  shepherd’s  life,  and 
one  day  as  he  watched  the  flock  he  said  to  himself,  “  All 
that  I  do  for  the  sheep  God  does  for  me  in  an  infinitely 
greater  measure.  He  supplies  all  my  wants,  guides, 
guards,  loves  me.  I  am  the  shepherd  of  these  sheep ; 
the  Lord  is  my  shepherd .”  And  it  was  Jacob  upon  whom 
first  flashed  this  thought  which  has  cheered  and  refreshed 
the  heart  of  the  world. 

“  The  Angel  which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil.”  The 
word  for  “  redeemed  ”  is  the  same  word  which  is  used  by 
Job  and  quoted  in  the  Burial  Office,  “  I  know  that  my 
Redeemer  liveth.”  Much  has  been  written  of  this  old 
Hebrew  word;  we  cannot  err,  however,  in  saying  that 
the  Goel  to  whom  **  both  Jacob  and  Job  looked  forward, 
and  of  whom  both  Moses  and  the  prophets  did  testify, 
was  Christ.”  We  know  assuredly  that  He  is  our 
Redeemer. 

In  this  Holy  Week  before  us  our  thoughts  will  be 
directed  to  the  redemption  purchased  for  us  on  Calvary. 
In  that  great  fact  of  our  religion  the  Good  Shepherd  be¬ 
came  the  Lamb  of  the  Passover;  Himself  the  Priest, 
Himself  the  Victim.  Putting  aside  all  theories  and  all 


204 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


controversies  concerning  the  atonement  the  Christian 
heart  may  confidently  rest  upon  the  short,  simple,  yet 
sufficient  declaration  of  St.  Paul,  “  Christ  died  for  our 
sins  according  to  the  Scriptures.” 


UNSTABLE  AS  WATER. 


MONDAY  BEFORE  EASTER. 


“  Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not  excel.” — Gen.  xlix.  4. 

HE  forty-ninth  chapter  of  Genesis  has  ever  been  con- 


1  sidered  one  of  the  great  chapters  of  the  Bible. 
When  Jacob  assembled  his  twelve  sons  about  his  death¬ 
bed  he  uttered  a  prophecy  which  he  declared  should 
cover  the  centuries  unto  the  “  last  days.”  The  remain¬ 
ing  books  of  the  Old  Testament  are  occupied  with  the 
fulfilment  of  the  destinies  here  predicted,  while  the 
heavenly  city  which  St.  John  beheld  in  his  vision  ”  had 
twelve  gates,  and  the  names  written  thereon  ”  were  “  the 
names  of  the  Twelve  Tribes  of  the  Children  of  Israel.” 
That  Jacob’s  prediction  in  this  remarkable  chapter  should 
furnish  most  helpful  and  suitable  themes  for  Holy  Week 
meditations  will  surprise  none  who  have  read  the  chapter 
attentively. 

The  words  of  the  text,  “  Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt 
not  excel,”  were  addressed  to  Reuben,  the  first-born. 
His  mental  and  moral  failure  cut  him  off  from  the  bless¬ 
ings  of  the  birthright.  There  is  here  primarily  a  reference 
to  Reuben’s  unrestrained  passions,  which  are  represented 
as  boiling  and  bubbling  like  water  in  a  caldron  or  a  gush¬ 
ing  spring;  but  “  unstable,”  unsteady,  inconstant  “  as 
water  ”  is  an  accurate  description  of  the  man’s  character 
as  a  whole.  Indecision  and  vacillation  marked  each  im¬ 
portant  act  in  his  history.  When  the  brothers  conspired 
to  kill  Joseph,  Reuben’s  instability  appeared.  He  was 


205 


206 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


in  command  and  he  made  a  stand  against  the  murder. 
He  seemed  to  be  the  only  one  of  the  company  who  dis¬ 
played  natural  affection  or  horror  of  bloodshed.  There 
was  a  tender  spot  in  his  heart  for  the  little  Dreamer. 
He  was  the  brother,  too,  who  had  greatest  reason  for 
hating  the  lad,  for  the  favorite  seemed  destined  to  sup¬ 
plant  him  in  the  chieftainship  of  the  tribe.  And  so  there 
was  much  goodness  and  self-sacrifice  in  the  heart  of  the 
man  who  desired  to  save  little  Joseph.  “  No,”  said  he, 
“  we  will  not  kill  him,  we  will  cast  him  into  a  pit  and  let 
him  die.  ”  But  he  intended  to  rescue  the  lad.  At  the  first 
opportunity  he  would  remove  him  secretly  from  the  pit 
and  “  deliver  him  to  his  father  again.”  Reuben  here  re¬ 
vealed  his  weakness.  He  wished  to  act  generously  and 
do  what  was  right,  but  he  lacked  the  courage  and  the  en¬ 
ergy  to  carry  out  his  purpose.  Even  the  plan  of  rescue, 
devised  in  a  feebleness  which  could  not  face  the  determi¬ 
nation  of  the  ten  brothers,  failed  because  of  its  author’s 
instability,  for,  thinking  that  there  was  now  no  immedi¬ 
ate  danger,  he  went  away  to  attend  to  other  matters,  and 
while  he  was  absent  the  ten  sold  Joseph  to  the  merchant¬ 
men  of  Midian.  Reuben,  nevertheless,  might  have  saved 
his  brother.  He  was  in  command.  Had  he  manfully 
and  resolutely  asserted  his  authority  the  ten  would  not 
have  dared  to  disobey  him.  But  Reuben  had  not  suf¬ 
ficient  strength  of  character  for  the  emergency  and 
showed  himself  “  unstable  as  water.” 

The  Gospels  for  Holy  Week  bring  before  us  a  Reuben 
of  the  New  Testament.  In  the  Passion  of  our  blessed 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  the  Roman  governor  who 
pronounced  the  sentence  of  death  was  as  “  unstable  as 
water.”  Pontius  Pilate  wavered,  hesitated,  and  failed. 
In  his  struggle  to  save  the  innocent  Christ,  the  true 


Unstable  as  Water. 


207 


Joseph,  he  was  that  “  double-minded  man  ”  of  whom 
St.  James  speaks,  “  unstable  in  all  his  ways  ;  for  he 
that  wavereth  is  like  a  wave  of  the  sea  driven  with  the 
wind  and  tossed.”  Water  is  the  very  image  of  vacillation 
and  indecision  of  purpose.  Whether  we  observe  it  in  the 
waves  of  the  sea  driven  by  the  wind  and  tossed  ;  in  the  quiet 
lake  reflecting  the  last  object  impressed  upon  it,  moon, 
stars,  foliage,  or  face  of  man;  taking  readily  the  mould 
and  form  of  the  vessel  into  which  it  is  poured  ; — it  is  ever 
fickle,  incapable  of  standing  alone,  powerless  to  resist  the 
pressure  of  external  forces.  When  a  man  is  “  as  weak 
as  water  ”  he  is  a  pitiable  creature.  Alexander  the 
Great,  when  asked  how  he  had  conquered  the  world,  re¬ 
plied,  ”  By  not  wavering.”  Philip  van  Artevelde’s  words 
express  the  universal  sentiment : 

“  All  my  life  long 
I  have  beheld  with  most  respect  the  man 
Who  knew  himself,  and  knew  the  ways  before  him, 

And  from  among  them  chose  considerately, 

And,  having  chosen,  with  a  steadfast  mind 
Pursued  his  purpose.  ” 

Pilate’s  purpose  was  to  escape  the  guilt  and  dishonor 
of  pronouncing  the  death  sentence  upon  an  innocent 
man.  St.  Peter,  in  the  book  of  the  Acts,  tells  us  that 
Pilate  “  was  determined  to  let  Him  go.”  But  he  did 
not  pursue  that  purpose  with  a  steadfast  mind.  The 
story  of  the  changeable  moods  in  which  he  resolved,  hesi¬ 
tated,  vacillated,  resolved  anew,  and  finally  yielded,  is  a 
tragedy  in  itself. 

Pilate,  like  Reuben,  however,  was  a  man  who  claims 
our  admiration  and  our  pity  as  well  as  our  condemnation. 
He  had  led  the  rough  and  careless  life  of  a  soldier,  a  life 


208 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


of  self-indulgence.  But  there  is  enough  on  record  to 
show  that  he  was  a  man  of  some  education  and  refine¬ 
ment;  naturally  just,  generous,  attractive;  a  gentleman, 
according  to  the  code  or  standard  of  his  race  and  rank. 
He  was  the  sixth  governor-general  sent  to  Jerusalem 
since  the  Roman  conquest,  and  from  the  beginning  his 
administration  had  been  unpopular  and  unsuccessful. 
At  the  ceremonies  connected  with  his  assumption  of 
office  there  was  a  riot,  and  up  to  the  present  time  three 
formal  indictments  had  already  been  lodged  against  him 
in  Rome.  He  knew  that  another  serious  uprising  of  the 
people  would  probably  cost  him  his  office. 

After  our  Lord’s  condemnation  in  the  palace  of  the 
high  priest  He  was  dragged  through  the  streets  to  Pilate’s 
judgment  hall.  The  leaders  of  the  mob  demanded  an 
order  for  the  execution  of  the  Prisoner.  They  expected 
no  difficulty  or  delay,  for  they  knew  that  Pilate  was  afraid 
of  them.  The  governor  took  in  the  situation  at  a  glance. 
He  perceived  that  it  was  for  envy  they  had  delivered 
Jesus  and  he  recognized  the  fact  that  the  Prisoner  was 
no  common  criminal.  Now  the  Roman  law  called  for 
justice — stern,  unpitying  justice,  it  is  true — still  it  called 
for  justice.  The  governor  was  under  oath  to  administer 
justice,  and  it  was  a  famous  saying  among  the  judges  and 
administrators  of  that  old  Roman  Empire,  “  Let  justice 
be  done  though  the  heavens  fall.”  Pilate’s  honor  was  at 
stake.  All  his  manhood  was  aroused  as  he  faced  the 
mob  and  demanded,  “  What  accusation  bring  ye  against 
this  man  ?  ”  thus  boldly  declaring  that  he  refused  their 
unlawful  demand  and  intended  to  give  the  Prisoner  a  fair 
and  impartial  hearing.  And  so  the  trial  began;  atrial 
which  was  in  reality  nothing  more  than  a  trial  of  Pilate’s 
stability  of  purpose  and  of  character. 


Unstable  as  Water. 


209 


The  governor  certainly  made  most  strenuous  efforts  to 
save  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  from  the  cross;  six  times  at 
least  in  the  course  of  the  trial  he  endeavored  to  set  the 
Prisoner  free ;  three  times  he  pronounced  officially,  “  I 
find  no  fault  in  this  man.”  But  the  chief  priests  held  to 
their  purpose.  Since  the  conquest  their  council  could 
not  inflict  the  death  penalty  and  the  crowd,  already  be¬ 
coming  turbulent,  fiercely  demanded,  “  Let  Him  be 
crucified.”  Then  the  frightened,  wavering  judge  asked 
a  second  private  interview  with  Christ.  The  Prisoner 
might  confess.  At  any  rate  it  would  give  the  judge  a 
moment’s  respite.  But  somehow  the  Lord’s  presence 
and  words  awakened  in  Pilate  thoughts  of  the  unseen, 
and  he  was  the  more  afraid.  At  this  crisis,  when  con¬ 
science  and  all  that  was  best  in  him  pleaded  for  Christ, 
his  wife’s  message  reached  him.  Claudia  Procula  was 
his  best  friend,  a  sensible,  gracious  woman,  and  he  loved 
her.  Dreams,  too,  were  regarded  by  the  Romans  with 
the  utmost  veneration.  Had  his  wife’s  dream  no  “  di¬ 
vinely  sinister  ”  significance  ?  As  he  once  more  faced 
the  mob,  what  must  have  been  the  thoughts  of  Pilate’s 
heart  ?  Should  he  yield  ?  Should  he  dishonor  his  office 
and  his  manhood  ?  “  No !  ”  he  seemed  to  have  said  to  him¬ 
self,  “  I  will  stand  firm !  I  will  heed  the  voices  of  wife,  of 
conscience,  and  of  the  gods!”  But  at  that  fateful  mo¬ 
ment  the  leaders  of  the  mob  made  their  final  move,  and 
won.  They  raised  the  cry,  “  If  thou  let  this  man  go 
thou  art  not  Caesar’s  friend!”  At  the  mention  of  that 
“  dark  and  terrible  ”  name,  at  the  thought  of  the  “  ulcer¬ 
ous  features”  of  Tiberius,  his  “  poisonous  suspicions,” 
his  **  desperate  revenge,”  Pilate’s  resolution  tottered  and 
fell.  He  called  for  water,  unstable  as  himself,  washed 

his  hands  of  blood,  and  gave  the  sentence. 

14 


210 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


We  know  that  Pilate’s  weakness  in  this  trial  was  the 
chief  cause  of  his  subsequent  downfall.  Instability  of 
purpose  is  fatal  to  temporal  success  of  any  kind.  For 
Christians,  however,  the  words  of  the  text  have  a  special 
significance.  When  we  were  confirmed,  when  we  made 
our  first  communion,  did  we  not  resolve  to  be  steadfast  ? 
We  thought  we  should  never  waver.  “  Bypath  meadow  ” 
had  no  attractions;  our  course  should  be  “  as  the  shining 
light,  that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.” 
But  must  we  not  confess  that  we  have  been  “  unstable 
as  water,”  unstable  in  prayer,  in  faith,  in  loyalty  to  the 
Church;  hot,  and  cold,  and  lukewarm,  each  in  turn,  in  our 
devotion  to  Jesus  Christ!  To-day  let  us  say,  “  O  Cruci¬ 
fied  Lord,  I  would  renew  my  steadfastness,  I  would  love 
and  serve  Thee  to  the  end.” 


THE  SCEPTRE  OF  JUDAH. 


TUESDAY  BEFORE  EASTER. 

“  The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between 
his  feet,  until  Shiloh  come.” — Gen.  xlix.  io. 

IN  the  blessing  of  Judah  Jacob  reaches  the  climax  of 
his  prophetic  predictions.  The  primacy  of  Israel  is 
here  bestowed  upon  faithful  Leah’s  fourth  son.  In  the 
significant  words  of  the  text  there  is  certainly  the  “  an¬ 
nouncement  of  a  Personality,  mysterious,  ineffable,  sub¬ 
lime,  which  dwarfs  all  others  —  as  Mont  Blanc  the  lesser 
elevations  of  his  mountain  realm.”  Before  that  Person¬ 
ality,  seen  by  faith,  the  dying  patriarch  ”  bows  in  wor¬ 
ship,”  while  his  withered  face  is  illumined  ”  with  a  light 
not  born  of  earth.” 

In  this  prophecy,  which  is  generally  accepted  as  Mes¬ 
sianic,  Jacob  foretells  the  future  fortunes  of  Judah  and 
of  the  tribe  which  Judah  founded,  and  in  his  words  we 
may  also  read  of  Christ  of  whom  they  give  us  a  true  and 
pleasing  picture.  The  prophecy,  as  will  be  noticed, 
takes  a  poetical  form : 

“  Judah,  thou  art  he  whom  thy  brethren  shall  praise : 

Thy  hand  shall  be  in  the  neck  of  thine  enemies  ; 

Thy  father’s  children  shall  bow  down  before  thee. 

Judah  is  a  lion’s  whelp  : 

From  the  prey,  my  son,  thou  art  gone  up  : 

He  stooped  down,  he  couched  as  a  lion, 

And  as  an  old  lion  ;  who  shall  rouse  him  up  ? 

The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah, 

Nor  a  lawgiver  from  between  his  feet, 


21 1 


212 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


Until  Shiloh  come  ; 

And  unto  him  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be, 

Binding  his  foal  unto  the  vine, 

And  his  ass’s  colt  unto  the  choice  vine  ; 

He  washed  his  garments  in  wine 
And  his  clothes  in  the  Blood  of  grapes  : 

His  eyes  shall  be  red  with  wine. 

And  his  teeth  white  with  milk.” 

You  will  observe  that  this  prophecy  has  three  divisions, 
each  of  which  takes  up  and  repeats  the  “  happy  name  of 
Judah.” 

i.  In  the  first  division  we  are  told  how  Judah  shall  be 
regarded  by  his  brethren,  and  how  he  shall  deal  with  the 
foes  of  Israel.  “  Judah,  thou  art  he  whom  thy  brethren 
shall  praise:  thy  father’s  children  shall  bow  down  before 
thee.”  Jerusalem,  the  capital  city  of  the  Holy  Land, 
was  located  within  Judah’s  borders,  and  David  and  Solo¬ 
mon  were  sons  of  his  tribe.  The  word  Jew  was  also  de¬ 
rived  from  his  name.  The  name  Judah  means  “  praise,” 
or  “  praise  to  God,”  and  so  there  is  a  play  upon  the 
word,  “  Judah,  thou  art  he  whom  thy  brethren  shall 
praise.”  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  angel’s  song 
for  Judah’s  son,  Jesus,  “  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  on 
earth  peace,”  in  the  Hebrew  might  have  been,  “  Judah 
in  the  highest,  on  earth  Shiloh.”  And  Jacob’s  words 
may  be  applied  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  “  Thou  art  He 
whom  Thy  brethren  shall  praise.”  Judah’s  son  David 
said  of  Christ,  “  Prayer  shall  be  made  ever  unto  Him, 
and  daily  shall  He  be  praised;  ”  and  we  sing,  “  Praise 
Him  all  creatures  here  below.”  ”  Thy  father’s  children 
shall  bow  down  before  Thee  ”  are  also  words  which  we 

may  ascribe  to  Him  of  whom  it  is  written:  “  All  kings 

shall  fall  down  before  Him,  all  nations  shall  do  Him 

service;  ”  and  “  at  His  name  every  knee  shall  bow.” 


The  Sceptre  of  Judah. 


213 


Of  Judah’s  enemies  it  is  predicted  that  his  “  hand  ” 
shall  be  in  their  ”  neck.”  The  tribe  of  Judah  should 
fear  no  foe  and  triumph  over  the  enemies  of  Israel.  But 
we  remember  that  “  Jesus  stretched  forth  His  hand  ” 
against  sin,  death,  and  hell.  “  The  Lord  said  unto  my 
Lord,  Sit  Thou  on  my  right  hand  until  I  make  Thine 
enemies  Thy  footstool,”  for  ”  He  must  reign  till  He  hath 
put  all  enemies  under  His  feet.” 

2.  In  the  second  part  of  the  prophecy  Judah  is  set  forth 
as  the  lion  of  the  Twelve  Tribes  of  Israel.  In  future 
years  the  lion  became  the  battle  standard  of  the  royal 
tribe  of  Judah.  In  the  Revelation  St.  John  identifies 
Christ  as  the  One  of  whom  Jacob  here  prophesied  and 
calls  Him  “  the  lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah.”  In  the 
words,  ”  From  the  prey,  my  son,  thou  art  gone  up,” 
Jacob  may  be  interpreted  as  addressing  the  suffering  and 
conquering  Christ:  ”  Thou,  my  Son,  art  gone  up  on 
high;  Thou  has  led  captivity  captive;  Thou  hast  bound 
the  strong  man,  Satan,  and  hast  spoiled  his  goods;  Thou 
hast  come  forth  as  a  conqueror  from  the  grave,  and  death 
is  swallowed  up  in  victory.”  The  phrase,  ”  He  stooped 
down,”  is  especially  descriptive  of  our  Lord’s  humiliation 
in  His  Passion  and  the  depths  of  suffering  into  which  He 
descended  on  the  Cross,  where,  as  St.  Paul  says,  “  Being 
found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  He  humbled  Himself,  and 
became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
Cross;  ”  but  from  that  ”  stooping,”  from  that  ”  couch¬ 
ing  down,  ’  ’  the  Lord  has  ‘  ‘  gone  up ;  ”  “  Wherefore  God 
also  hath  highly  exalted  ”  the  crucified  and  risen  Christ, 
”  and  given  Him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name.” 

3.  The  third  portion  of  Jacob’s  prediction  concerning 
Judah  begins  with  the  words,  ”  The  sceptre  shall  not  de¬ 
part  from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from  between  his  feet, 


2  14 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


until  Shiloh  come.”  This  passage  is  not  without  its 
difficulties,  critical  and  exegetical.  In  Holy  Week  we 
will  take  what  is  certain. 

Shiloh  is  a  “  mystic  ”  word,  a  word  **  coined  by 
Jacob,”  and  it  has  a  “  hundred  meanings.”  Primarily 
it  means  the  Rest-Giver ,  the  Prince  of  Peace ;  so  for  us  it 
is  one  of  the  precious  names  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  “  Until  Shiloh  come  the  sceptre  shall  not 
depart  from  Judah.”  A  cautious  and  learned  modern 
commentator,  Canon  Rawlinson,  does  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  this  “  prophecy  may  be  considered  as  fulfilled  by 
the  continuance  of  Judea  as  an  independent  kindgom 
until  Rome  established  her  dominion  over  it  by  the  ap¬ 
pointment,  in  A.D.  8,  of  Coponius,  the  first  procurator.” 
In  the  year  of  our  Lord  8,  Shiloh  had  already  come,  the  Babe 
of  Bethlehem.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  claim  a  literal 
fulfilment  for  this,  or  for  the  later  prophecy  that  David’s 
seed  should  sit  on  the  throne  for  ever  and  ever.  The 
heart  of  the  prophecy  is  a  precious  certainty.  In  any 
case  the  Jewish  nation  lasted,  the  Jewish  Church  lasted, 
until  the  coming  of  Christ.  This  is  a  fact  of  history. 
To-day,  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  words,  David  has  an 
heir  who  will  sit  on  the  throne  forever,  “  and  of  the  in¬ 
crease  of  His  government  and  peace  there  shall  be  no 
end.”  “  Unto  Him,”  continues  the  prediction  of  Jacob, 
“  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be.”  Our  Lord 
shall  be  the  “  Desire  of  all  nations,”  He  shall  ”  gather 
together  in  one  the  children  of  God,”  for  He  Himself  has 
promised  to  gather  all  His  sheep  together  so  that  ”  there 
shall  be  one  fold  and  one  Shepherd.” 

The  concluding  clauses  describe  the  fruitfulness  of  the 
region  which  should  be  assigned  to  Judah  in  the  land  of 
Canaan.  The  vines  should  be  so  strong  that  asses  could 


The  Sceptre  of  Judah. 


215 


be  tied  to  them,  and  grapes  so  abundant  that  wine  should 
be  as  plentiful  as  water.  But  the  words,  “  Binding  his 
foal  unto  the  vine,  and  his  ass’s  colt  unto  the  choice 
vine,”  have  reminded  holy  men  that  “  foal  ”  and  “  ass’s 
colt  ”  are  are  figures  of  the  Gentiles  as  “  the  vine  is  a 
figure  of  the  Jewish  Church.  The  Psalmist  said  of  the 
Church  of  the  Old  Covenant,  “  Thou  hast  brought  a  vine 
out  of  Egypt,”  and  again,  ”  Thou  God  of  hosts,  look 
down  from  heaven,  behold,  and  visit  this  vine.”  In  the 
New  Testament  our  Lord  represents  His  union  with  His 
Church  as  the  union  of  a  vine  and  its  branches.  And  so 
on  Palm  Sunday  in  the  remarkable  fulfilment  of  Zech- 
ariah’s  prophecy,  “  Behold,  thy  King  cometh  unto  thee, 
meek,  riding  upon  an  ass,  even  upon  a  colt,  the  foal  of 
an  ass,”  a  further  fulfilment  of  Jacob’s  words  has  been 
seen,  for  Christ  advanced  to  His  passion  in  order  to  **  tie 
the  foal  unto  the  choice  vine,”  binding  the  Gentiles  to 
the  privileges  of  Israel.  As  St.  Augustine  (quoted  by 
Bishop  Wordsworth)  says:  ”  ‘  He  bound  His  foal  unto 
the  vine  ’  when  He  rode  on  the  colt  to  Jerusalem,  and 
prefigured  the  bringing  in  of  the  Gentiles  to  the  Church 
of  God.  He  ‘  washed  His  garments  in  wine;’  in  the 
wine  of  that  Blood  which  was  shed  for  the  remission  of 
sins.  He  is  the  bunch  of  grapes  which  was  suspended  on 
the  wood.  He  washed  His  robes,  and  the  robes  of  His 
Church  ‘  in  the  blood  of  grapes.’  ‘  His  eyes  are  red  with 
wine,’  for  His  saints  are  filled  with  holy  joy.  ‘  His  teeth 
also  are  white  with  milk,’  for  babes  in  Christ  are  ”  nour¬ 
ished  by  Him. 

Unto  Him  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be.  ’  ’  Let 
these  old  words  concerning  the  promised  Shiloh  sink 
into  our  hearts  this  day.  He  Himself  said,  I,  if  I  be 
lifted  up  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me.”  Once  He  was  lifted 


216  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

up  on  Calvary’s  Cross.  During  Holy  Week  throughout 
the  world  that  Cross  is  again  lifted  up.  Unto  Him  is 
the  gathering  of  the  people.  No  man  in  Holy  Week  can 
entirely  escape  the  remembrance  of  the  Passion  and 
Crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  holy  season  preaches 
Christ  crucified  to  multitudes  who  never  enter  the  doors 
of  the  church.  Now,  however,  He  is  especially  lifted 
up  before  the  eyes  of  the  believer.  Thou,  O  Lifted-up 
Redeemer,  hast  said  Thou  wilt  draw  all  men ;  O  draw 
me!  The  power  of  Thy  Cross  has  changed  the  world; 
O  may  it  change  me!  O  Saviour  of  the  world,  who  by 
Thy  Cross  and  precious  Blood  hath  redeemed  us;  save 
us,  and  help  us,  we  humbly  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord. 


GRIEVED  BY  THE  ARCHERS. 


WEDNESDAY  BEFORE  EASTER. 

“  The  archers  have  sorely  grieved  him,  and  shot  at  him,  and  hated  him  : 
But  his  bow  abode  in  strength,  and  the  arms  of  his  hands  were  made  strong 
by  the  hands  of  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob  ;  (from  thence  is  the  shepherd,  the 
stone  of  Israel :)  ” — Gen.  xlix.  23,  24. 

THE  text  is  a  portion  of  Jacob’s  prophetic  blessing 
upon  his  favorite  son,  Joseph.  The  dying  patri¬ 
arch  has  a  blessing  for  each  of  his  twelve  sons,  but  when 
he  reaches  Rachel’s  first-born,  his  heart  overflows  in 
words  of  pride  and  praise.  In  glowing  and  exuberant 
language  he  tells  of  Joseph’s  triumphs  over  all  his  foes  in 
the  past  and  foretells  for  him  the  richest  future  happiness 
and  prosperity;  yet  the  greater  part  of  this  blessing  is 
history  rather  than  prophecy.  In  the  words  of  the  text 
the  patriarch  certainly  speaks  of  the  sufferings  his  son 
has  endured  and  of  the  Divine  strength  imparted  to  him, 
by  which  he  was  enabled  to  triumph  over  those  who 
hated  him.  Whatever  is  prophetical  must  be  said  of 
another;  and  it  is  impossible  to  read  the  words  without 
thinking  of  Another,  even  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The 
theologians  of  all  schools  agree  in  making  the  life  and 
character  of  Joseph  a  foreshadowing  of  Him  who  was  to 
come.  The  greatest  of  the  Christian  poets  have  also 
seen  in  Joseph  a  picture  of  Christ.  Newman  opens  his 
beautiful  sonnet  on  Joseph  with  these  words:  “  O  purest 
semblance  of  the  Eternal  Son.”  Isaac  Williams  says: 

“  Thus,  sweet-souled  Joseph,  as  thy  life  ran  on, 

Each  scene  disclosed  anew  th’  Eternal  Son.” 


217 


2l8 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


To-day  let  us  consider  the  sufferings  described  in  the 
text.  Are  not  the  words  as  true  of  Jesus  as  of  Joseph  ? 

The  archers  have  sorely  grieved  Him,  and  shot  at  Him, 
and  hated  Him.”  Recall  some  of  the  chief  points  of  the 
resemblance.  Joseph  was  the  son  loved  of  the  father; 
so  was  Christ.  The  dreams  of  Joseph  which  foretold  the 
bowing  down  of  his  brethren  before  him  remind  us  of 
One  greater  than  Joseph,  at  whose  name  “  every  knee 
shall  bow.”  Joseph  was  “  sorely  grieved  by  the  archers,” 
he  was  “  a  man  of  sorrows,  and  acquainted  with  grief ;  ” 
he  was  hated  by  his  brethren  and  stripped  of  his  raiment, 
even  as  Jesus  Christ  was,  and  cast  into  a  pit  as  a  dead 
man ;  he  was  one,  as  the  Evangelical  Prophet  said  of 
Christ,  whose  garments  “  were  dyed  in  blood.”  His 
brethren,  “  moved  with  envy,”  sold  him  to  the  Egyptians 
for  the  price  of  a  slave;  and  the  Jews,  “  moved  with 
envy,”  delivered  Christ  who  was  also  sold  for  a  price. 
Joseph  was  sorely  grieved  by  the  archers  of  temptation 
in  Potiphar  s  house,  but  he  did  no  wrong ;  Christ,  too,  was 
tempted  in  the  wilderness,  yet  was  “  without  sin.” 
Joseph  was  falsely  accused  and  imprisoned,  while  the 
True  Joseph  was  “  accused  by  false  witnesses,”  and 
“  numbered  with  the  transgressors.”  In  the  dungeon 
Joseph  was  “  as  a  dead  man  out  of  mind,”  and  was  num¬ 
bered  with  “  two  malefactors,”  the  butler  and  the  baker, 
to  one  of  whom  he  promised  life,  and  to  the  other,  death. 
On  the  Cross  our  Lord  was  hanged  between  two  thieves, 
one  saved,  the  other  lost ;  and  in  the  dungeon  of  the 
grave  He  was  “  free  among  the  dead.”  But  each  was 
raised  from  the  pit  to  rule  in  royalty.  Truly  of  Joseph 
it  may  be  said, 

“  Type  thou  art  of  One  more  holy, 

Who  His  glory  laid  aside, 


Grieved  by  the  Archers. 


219 


Took  the  form  of  servant  lowly, 
Stooped  to  suffering  man  and  died. 

“  He  was  scorned  and  sold  and  hated 
By  the  men  He  came  to  save, 

With  a  cruel  wrath  unsated 
Followed  to  His  three-days’  grave.” 


Joseph’s  history  after  he  rose  from  the  grave  of  Poti- 
phar’s  dungeon  is  as  prophetic  as  the  story  of  his  suffer¬ 
ings.  He  “  is  raised  on  high  among  the  heathen,”  as 
Isaac  Williams  has  said,  “  saving  life  and  giving  bread, 
the  bread  that  saveth  from  death;  setting  forth  Him 
who  giveth  the  true  bread  from  Heaven;  married  to  a 
daughter  of  Egypt,  as  Christ’s  Bride,  the  Church,  is 
taken  from  among  the  Gentiles  ;  then  receiving  his 
brethren  as  *  one  alive  from  the  dead,’  with  words  like 
those  of  our  Lord  Himself  after  His  Resurrection,  when 
they  were  ‘  troubled  at  His  presence,’  and  ‘  supposed 
that  they  had  seen  a  spirit,’  but  Joseph  says,  ‘  Come 
near  me,  I  pray  you.  And  they  came  near.  And  he 
said,  I  am  Joseph  your  brother.’  ” 

The  words  of  the  text,  “  The  archers  have  sorely 
grieved  him,”  are  fulfilled  in  the  sufferings  of  Christ  as 
they  are  brought  before  us  in  to-day’s  Gospel.  All  the 
archers  of  evil  have  shot  at  Him,  and  hated  Him.  The 
story  of  His  agonies  of  mind  and  body  occupies  a  large 
part  of  the  four  Gospel  narratives.  Above  all  He  was 
grieved  with  the  wounds  of  an  arrow  whose  sharpness  we 
know  not  nor  can  imagine,  when  the  Lord  God  “  laid  on 
Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all.” 

But  his  bow  abode  in  strength;  ”  the  Lord  Jesus  en¬ 
dured  the  sorrows  of  the  Cross  because  “  the  arms  of  His 
hands  were  made  strong  by  the  hands  of  the  mighty  God 


220 


The  Bartered  Birthright 


of  Jacob.”  Here  was  one  name  for  God,  but  the  patri¬ 
arch  added  two  other  names  and  gave  his  God  a  triple 
name, — “  The  mighty  God  of  Jacob,  the  Shepherd,  the 
Stone  of  Israel.”  These  names  were  each  taken  up  by 
future  writers  of  Holy  Scripture,  explained  and  ex¬ 
pounded;  and  they  have  made  for  themselves  a  perma¬ 
nent  place  in  religious  literature. 

The  Mighty  God  of  Jacob. — In  this  personal  appropria¬ 
tion  of  God,  Jacob  could  cry,“  My  Lord,  and  my  God,” 
as  Christ  could  say,  “  O  my  Father”;  even  as  each 
Christian  heart  can  speak  of  One  who  “  loved  me  and 
gave  Himself  for  me.”  This  name  for  God  was  never 
forgotten  by  Jacob’s  descendants.  How  often  do  we 
read  in  the  Psalms  of  the  “  God  of  Jacob”!  “  The 
Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us,  the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  re¬ 
fuge.”  Our  Lord  Himself  used  this  name  as  a  proof  of  a 
future  life  when  He  said,  “As  touching  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  have  ye  never  read  ”  that  long  after  the 
burial  of  the  three  great  patriarchs  God  revealed  Himself 
to  Moses  as  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and 

God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living.” 
And  we  know  that  in  His  Passion  our  blessed  Saviour 
was  strengthened  by  the  hands  of  the  mighty  God  of 
Jacob. 

The  Shepherd. — Once  before  Jacob  had  spoken  of  the 

God  which  shepherded  me  all  my  life;  ”  he  thought  of 
the  Lord  as  his  shepherd  long  before  David  wrote  the 
twenty-third  Psalm.  The  figure  may  be  found  in  many 
later  books  of  the  Bible.  “  Behold  the  Lord  God  shall 
come  with  a  strong  hand;  He  will  feed  His  flock  like  a 
shepherd,”  declares  the  prophet;  and  to-day  we  see  the 
Good  Shepherd  of  souls  ready  “  to  lay  down  His  life  for 
the  sheep.” 


Grieved  by  the  Archers. 


221 


The  Stone  of  Israel. — Jacob  here  coined  another  pre¬ 
cious  word  which  will  never  die.  “Trust  ye  in  the  Lord 
forever,”  said  Isaiah,  “  for  in  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  ever¬ 
lasting  strength,”  or  as  the  Hebrew  is  rendered  literally 
in  the  margin  of  our  Bible,  “  in  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  the 
Rock  of  Ages;  ”  and  our  Lord  said,  “  Did  ye  never  read 
in  the  Scripture,  The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected, 
the  same  is  become  the  head-stone  of  the  corner  ?  ”  And 
of  the  cleft  rock  in  the  wilderness  the  Epistle  to  the  He¬ 
brews  declares,  “  That  rock  was  Christ.”  In  a  great 
sermon  upon  this  text  Dr.  Maclaren  says:  “  At  one  end 
of  the  long  chain  this  dim  figure  of  the  dying  Jacob,  amid 
the  strange  vanished  life  of  Egypt,  stretches  out  his 
withered  hands  to  God  the  stone  of  Israel;  at  the  other 
end,  we  lift  up  ours  to  Jesus,  and  cry: 

“  ‘  Rock  of  Ages  !  cleft  for  me, 

Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee.’  ” 


To-day  the  Church  brings  before  us  the  complete  ful¬ 
filment  of  the  prediction  of  Genesis.  On  the  Cross  we 
do  see  Him  whom  “  the  archers  have  sorely  grieved,” 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  we  see  Him  “  made  strong  ” 
to  submit  to  the  agonies  of  the  Crucifixion  “  by  the  hands 
of  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob,  the  Shepherd,  the  Stone  of 
Israel.” 

He  was  the  true  Joseph  who  in  Jacob’s  words  “  was 
separate  from  his  brethren.”  That  separated  One  is  our 
Brother,  and  He  is  grieved  for  our  sakes,  in  order  that 
He  may  bear  our  griefs.  As  we  think  of  that  Cross  each 
pardoned  Christian  soul,  remembering  how  once  it  was 
stricken  by  the  archers  of  sin  and  healed  by  Him  who 
had  Himself  been  hurt  by  the  archers,  can  reverently  re¬ 
peat  the  singularly  beautiful  words  of  Cowper: 


222 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


“  I  was  a  stricken  deer,  that  left  the  herd 

Long  since  ;  with  many  an  arrow  deep  infixed 
My  panting  side  was  charged,  when  I  withdrew, 

To  seek  a  tranquil  death  in  distant  shades. 

There  was  I  found  by  One,  who  had  Himself 
Been  hurt  by  th’  archers.  In  His  side  He  bore, 

And  in  His  hands  and  feet,  the  cruel  scars ; 

With  gentle  force  soliciting  the  darts, 

He  drew  them  forth,  and  healed,  and  bade  me  live.” 

The  Task ,  Book  III. 


THY  SALVATION. 


THURSDAY  BEFORE  EASTER. 

“  I  have  waited  for  thy  salvation,  O  Lord.” — Gen.  xlix.  18. 

IN  the  midst  of  his  prophetic  blessings  upon  the  Twelve 
Tribes  of  Israel  Jacob  uttered  the  ejaculation  of  the 
text.  Why  he  paused  for  prayer  at  this  particular  point 
in  his  speech  we  do  not  know,  and  the  exclamation  of  the 
text  is  open  to  various  interpretations;  but  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  salvation  he  waited  for  was  the  last  and 
chiefest  blessing  of  the  Lord.  As  the  patriarch  lay  dying 
the  prophetic  ecstasy  was  upon  him.  Already  he  has 
seen  a  vision  of  the  Shiloh  unto  whom  should  be  the 
future  gatherings  of  the  people.  He  was  a  man  of  prayer, 
the  Prince  of  God,  the  Prevailer,  and  so  we  must  recog¬ 
nize  in  his  dying  prayer  the  highest  aspiration  of  a  spirit¬ 
ual  master  and  victor. 

For  many  years  Jacob  had  set  his  affections  on  things 
above  and  his  present  utterance  was  a  fulfilment  of  the 
promise  that  “  the  righteous  hath  hope  in  his  death.” 
He  now  waited  for  salvation,  he  looked  forward  to  a 
better  country,”  a  clearer,  fuller  revelation,  “  a  city 
which  hath  foundations,  whose  builder  and  maker  is 
God.”  I  have  waited  for  thy  salvation,  O  Lord,’  ”  he 
says;  “  I  have  experienced  a  large  measure  of  the  blessed¬ 
ness  of  that  salvation,  for  the  God  of  my  fathers  has 
shepherded  me  all  my  life  long  unto  this  day,  and  the 
Angel  of  the  Covenant  hath  redeemed  my  soul  from  all 
evil ;  yet  there  is  much  that  is  dim  and  vague.  Behold, 


223 


224  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

I  die;  my  spirit  will  soon  return  to  God  who  gave  it; 
and  there,  in  the  waiting-place  of  the  departed,  I  shall 
know  and  see,  and  Thy  full  salvation  shall  be  revealed  to 
me  in  the  face  of  Him  who  is  thy  Salvation  and  my 
Saviour.  ” 

Now  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  first  Epistle  St.  Peter 
alludes  to  the  ejaculation  of  the  text,  and  we  may  well 
turn  to  his  comment  upon  the  salvation  of  the  Lord  as 
the  Christian  interpretation  of  Jacob’s  words.  The 
Apostle  speaks  of  salvation  as  a  complete  and  eternal 
deliverance  from  all  sin  and  from  all  imperfection:  “  Of 
which  salvation  the  prophets  have  enquired  and  searched 
diligently,  who  prophesied  of  the  grace  that  should  come 
unto  you :  searching  what,  or  what  manner  of  time  the 
spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it 
testified  beforehand  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory 
that  should  follow.”  St.  Peter  would  include  Jacob 
among  the  prophets  who  inquired  and  searched  diligently 
—  who  thought,  meditated,  prayed,  and  earnestly  en¬ 
deavored  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of  the  revelation 
given  unto  them  to  utter  concerning  the  salvation  of  the 
Lord.  The  prophets  of  old  time,  moreover,  foretold 
that  this  salvation  should  be  accomplished  and  secured 
by  “  the  sufferings  of  Christ.”  The  true  Joseph  must 
be  “  sorely  grieved  by  the  archers.”  The  Holy  Spirit 
which  was  in  the  prophets  testified  beforehand  to  a  sal¬ 
vation  won  by  a  suffering  Messiah.  A  suffering  Saviour, 
declares  St.  Peter,  is  the  main  theme  of  Old  Testament 
prophecy.  In  his  sermon  in  Solomon’s  porch  the  same 
Apostle  repeats  this  assertion:  “Those  things  which 
God  before  had  shewed  by  the  mouth  of  all  His  prophets, 
that  Christ  should  suffer,  He  hath  so  fulfilled.”  And 
St.  Paul,  in  his  speech  before  King  Agrippa,  declared 


Thy  Salvation. 


225 


that  he  had  said  “  none  other  things  than  those  which 
the  prophets  and  Moses  did  say  should  come  :  that  Christ 
should  suffer,  and  that  He  should  be  the  first  that  should 
rise  from  the  dead.”  Our  Lord  Himself  on  the  day  of 
His  Resurrection  expounded  to  the  two  disciples  on  the 
way  to  Emmaus  the  things  concerning  Himself,  “  begin¬ 
ning  at  Moses  and  all  the  prophets,”  saying,  ”  ought  not 
Christ  to  have  suffered  these  things,  and  to  enter  into 
His  glory  ?  ” 

In  his  reference  to  the  salvation  for  which  Jacob 
longed,  St.  Peter  teaches  not  only  that  the  salvation  of 
the  Lord  was  purchased  in  the  past  on  Calvary,  but  also 
that  by  His  Passion  and  Crucifixion  our  Lord  won  for 
us  a  present  and  a  future  salvation.  Concerning  salva¬ 
tion  in  the  world  to  come,  he  says  that  the  faithful  are 
begotten  again  to  an  inheritance  incorruptible,  and  un¬ 
defiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away,  reserved  in  heaven  for 
you,  who  are  kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith 
unto  salvation  ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  last  time.” 
Our  Lord  has  gone  to  prepare  a  place  for  us.  The 
blessedness  of  eternal  life  is  ours.  That  final  and  com¬ 
pleted  salvation  is  ready  to  be  revealed  to  each  believer. 

But  this  salvation,  past  and  future,  is  also,  the  Apostle 
declares,  a  present  salvation:  **  Whom  having  not  seen, 
ye  love;  in  whom,  though  now  ye  see  Him  not,  yet  be¬ 
lieving,  ye  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory: 
receiving  the  end  of  your  faith,  even  the  salvation  of 
your  souls.”  The  tenses  are  present.  The  souls  of  be¬ 
lievers  are  saved  now.  As  St.  Paul  says,  “  By  grace  ye 
are  saved  through  faith.”  And  this  salvation,  past, 
present,  and  future,  was  wrought  for  us  by  the  sufferings 
of  Christ,  our  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour.  Of  that  salva¬ 
tion  Jacob’s  exclamation  in  the  text  is  a  prophecy,  “  I 
15 


226 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


have  waited  for  Thy  salvation,  O  Lord.”  In  the  fervent 
words  of  the  devout  William  Law:  “  Salvation!  It  is 
the  work  for  which  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethlehem,  and 
lived  on  earth,  and  died  on  Calvary,  and  descended  into 
the  grave,  and  burst  the  bonds  of  death,  and  mounted  to 
heaven,  and  sits  on  the  right  hand  of  God.  For  this  He 
reigns  and  prays  on  high.  It  is  the  work  for  which  the 
Spirit  seeks  our  earth,  and  knocks  at  the  barred  entrance 
of  the  sinner’s  heart.  For  this  He  assails  the  fortress  of 
self-love,  and  reveals  the  perils  of  sin,  and  wrestles  with 
ignorance  and  vain  excuses.  Salvation !  It  is  the  first 
message  which  mercy  uttered  to  a  ruined  world.  It  is 
the  end  of  every  prophecy,  the  purpose  of  every  pre¬ 
cept,  the  beauty  of  every  promise,  the  truth  of  every 
sacrifice,  the  substance  of  every  rite,  the  song  of  every 
inspired  lip,  the  longing  desire  of  every  renewed  heart, 
the  beacon  which  guides  through  the  voyage  of  life,  the 
haven  to  which  the  tides  of  grace  convey,  the  end  of 
faith,  the  full  light  of  hope,  the  home  of  love!  ” 

Furthermore,  as  a  prophet  Jacob  would  personify  the 
Salvation  of  the  Lord.  His  exclamation  in  the  text  re¬ 
minds  us  of  the  words  of  another  aged  saint  of  God. 
Simeon,  who  chanted  his  nunc  dimittis  in  the  temple,  had 
also  waited  for  the  salvation' of  the  Lord;  he  had 
waited  for  the  consolation  of  Israel.”  But  unlike  dy¬ 
ing  Israel  he  was  to  see  the  reality  and  not  the  vision 
only,  for  “  it  was  revealed  unto  him  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
that  he  should  not  see  death  before  he  had  seen  the 
Lord’s  Christ.”  Accordingly  when  he  clasped  the  Holy 
Child  in  his  arms  he  cried,  “  Lord,  now  lettest  Thou  Thy 
servant  depart  in  peace,  according  to  Thy  word  ;  for  mine 
eyes  have  seen  Thy  salvation.”  Having  waited  in  faith 
he  could  now  say  of  the  Infant  in  his  arms,  “  This  is  Thy 


Thy  Salvation. 


227 


Salvation  !  ”  But  Simeon  as  a  prophet  saw  yet  more ;  with 
all  the  prophets  ”  he  foretold  the  sharp  sword  of  suffer¬ 
ing  which  should  pierce  both  the  Saviour  and  the  saved. 

As  we  meditate  upon  the  salvation  of  the  Lord,  made 
ours  by  the  death  of  Christ  upon  the  Cross,  that  salvation 
which  Jacob  and  all  the  prophets  longed  for  and  foretold, 
that  salvation  won  in  the  past,  our  present  possession, 
our  hope  of  glory  in  the  eternal  future,  can  we  fail,  on 
this  Maundy  Thursday,  to  accept  and  make  our  own  the 
grateful  words  of  the  Psalmist:  “  What  reward  shall  I 
give  unto  the  Lord  for  all  the  benefits  that  He  hath  done 
unto  me  ?  I  will  receive  the  cup  of  salvation,  and  call 
upon  the  name  of  the  Lord.”  The  Psalm  which  con¬ 
tains  these  words  was  part  of  the  Hallel  sung  by  our 
blessed  Lord  and  His  Apostles  on  the  night  of  the  insti¬ 
tution  of  the  Holy  Communion,  when  He  gave  them  the 
Cup  of  Salvation  in  His  Blood.  And  so  upon  this  Thurs¬ 
day  which  commemorates  the  celebration  of  the  First 
Eucharist,  O  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour,  I  will  meditate 
upon  Thy  love  in  giving  that  Feast  of  Salvation  unto 
Thy  Church;  with  Thy  help  I  will  prepare  for  my  own 
Easter  Communion,  and  on  that  holy  day  with  all  the 
faithful  throughout  the  world,  ”  I  will  receive  the  Cup 
of  Salvation,  and  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord.”  As 
I  kneel  before  the  Easter  altar  to  receive  Thy  gift,  I  will 
not  forget  that  it  is  also  written:  ”  Unto  them  that  look 
for  Him  shall  He  appear  the  second  time,  without  sin, 
unto  salvation.” 

“  O  Love,  who  once  in  time  wast  slain, 

Pierced  through  and  through  with  bitter  woe, 

O  Love,  who  wrestling  thus  didst  gain 
That  we  eternal  joy  might  know  : 

O  Love,  I  give  myself  to  Thee  : 

Thine  ever,  only  Thine  to  be. 


228 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


“  O  Love,  who  once  shalt  bid  me  rise 
From  out  this  dying  life  of  ours  : 

O  Love,  who  once  above  yon  skies 
Shalt  set  me  in  the  fadeless  bowers  : 
O  Love,  I  give  myself  to  Thee  ; 

Thine  ever,  only  Thine  to  be.” 


HE  YIELDED  UP  THE  GHOST. 


GOOD  FRIDAY. 

“  And  yielded  up  the  ghost.” — Gen.  xlix.  33. 

WE  are  naturally  inclined  to  be  indifferent  to  that 
which  is  familiar.  In  the  northern  parts  of 
Europe  the  sun  does  not  rise  for  six  months  in  the  year, 
but  when  he  does  appear  after  his  long  sleep  the  people 
who  dwell  in  those  far  away  lands  welcome  him  with  ex¬ 
uberant  delight.  They  climb  to  the  summits  of  the 
great  rocks  which  overlook  the  northern  sea  and  sing 
psalms  of  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  reappearance  of 
the  king  of  day.  The  sunrise  is  a  great  event  because 
months  have  passed  since  last  it  was  seen.  With  us, 
however,  the  sun  rises  every  morning  in  the  year  and  the 
dawn  is  such  a  commonplace  matter  that  we  scarcely  give 
it  a  moment’s  consideration.  So  it  is  with  the  familiar 
certainties  of  life.  The  great  truths  are  so  well  known 
that  we  neglect  and  forget  them.  Some  of  the  essential 
facts  which  men  and  women  are  prone  to  put  aside  are 
brought  before  us  most  vividly  on  Good  Friday. 

One  of  the  facts  which  the  death  of  Christ  emphasizes 
is  the  certainty  that  we  too  must  die.  And  we  know  so 
well  that  we  are  mortal  that  we  forget  the  fact.  We 
even  seek  to  forget  it,  and  seem  to  live  as  though  we 
were  to  live  here  forever.  To-day,  then,  let  us  face  this 
contingency  and  try  to  realize  the  end  which  awaits  us 
all.  In  yielding  up  the  ghost  our  blessed  Lord  sub¬ 
mitted  to  the  lot  of  every  child  of  Adam.  Death  reigns. 


229 


230 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


We  must  die.  Over  each  one  of  us  will  be  said,  “  Ashes 
to  ashes,  dust  to  dust.”  There  is  no  escape;  “  all  heads 
must  come  to  the  cold  tomb.”  The  grave  yawns,  your 
grave  and  mine.  Yet  how  seldom  when  in  the  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  health  do  we  reflect  upon  the  grave  and  gate  of 
death — our  own  death,  our  own  grave !  It  has  been  said 
that  we  never  know  the  meaning  of  death  until  death 
comes  to  one  we  love.  Of  most  of  us  the  saying  is  true. 
In  youth  we  heard  of  death,  read  of  death,  saw  the  hearse, 
the  graveyard,  the  funeral  procession ;  but  when  death 
came  to  our  own  home,  then,  for  the  first  time,  we  under¬ 
stood  its  awful  significance. 

The  death  mentioned  in  the  text  will  help  us  to  think 
of  our  own  dying  day.  If  we  have  found  the  life  of  Jacob 
a  fruitful  and  edifying  Lenten  study,  surely,  now  at  the 
close,  as  we  behold  him  yielding  up  the  ghost,  we  may 
say,  “  Let  my  last  end  be  like  his.”  He  died  in  faith, 
in  charity  with  all  men,  and  he  had  “  hope  in  his  death.” 
Beginning  life  with  an  inborn  love  for  the  things  of  earth 
rarely  exceeded,  still  he  set  his  affections  on  things 
above;  and  after  a  lifelong  struggle  to  subdue  the  evil 
within  him,  won  the  crown  of  righteousness  and  died  for¬ 
given  and  victorious.  In  Jacob  “  patience  had  her  per¬ 
fect  work.”  Gradually,  under  the  discipline  of  a  loving 
Heavenly  Father’s  hand,  he  was  changed  from  Jacob  the 
Supplanter  into  Israel  the  Prince  of  God.  But  you  say, 
“  When  Christ  yielded  up  the  ghost  on  Calvary  He  was 
more  than  man  and  He  could  say  with  an  assurance 
which  passed  beyond  faith,  ‘  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I 
commend  My  spirit;  ’  when  Jacob  yielded  up  the  ghost 
he  was  an  old  man  with  little  more  to  live  for,  and  he 
was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  saints;  I  am  only  human, 
and  very  human;  I  have  not  attained  unto  Jacob’s  years 


He  Yielded  up  the  Ghost.  231 

or  Jacob’s  faith,  and  the  thought  of  my  own  death  crushes 
and  overmasters  me.”  The  fear  of  death,  however,  which 
is  natural,  cannot  furnish  a  valid  excuse  for  refusing  to 
give  it  consideration.  All  living  creatures  fear  death. 
As  has  been  said:  “  The  senseless,  dumb  creature,  the 
sheep,  the  ox,  will  tremble  as  he  sees  death  at  his  side. 
This  shrinking,  this  horror  of  great  darkness,  comes  even 
to  the  animal  which  has  no  sense  of  sin,  no  dread  of 
doom.  And  why  ?  Because  death  and  life  are  at  eternal 
enmity.  Man  was  made  for  unity,  and  death  means 
destruction.  Man  was  made  for  beauty,  and  death  means 
corruption.  Man  was  made  for  health,  and  death  means 
fatal  disease.  If  you  know  what  it  is  to  live  in  God  —  if 
you  know  what  it  is  to  feel  that  within  you  there  are 
powers  and  capacities  the  exercise  of  which  produces  in¬ 
finite  delight :  if  you  know  what  pure,  unselfish  affection  is, 
—  if  you  have  really  entered  into  the  charm  of  life — then 
you  have  shrunk  with  inveterate  loathing  from  death.” 
At  the  grave  of  Lazarus  our  blessed  Lord  groaned  in 
spirit  and  was  troubled.  He  trembled  with  human  horror 
as  the  shadow  of  death  approached  Him  in  Gethsemane. 
And  this  thought  of  death  frightens  us  all.  Its  inevit¬ 
ableness  also  adds  to  the  fear  which  it  inspires. 

“  The  black  camel  Death  kneeleth  once  at  each  door 
And  a  mortal  must  mount  to  return  nevermore.” 

That  grim  messenger  will  come  for  me.  I  must  go  with 
him  ;  I  must  go  alone.  No  human  companions  can  share 
my  journey.  The  grave  with  its  loneliness,  its  silence, 
its  worm,  awaits  my  body.  I  must  leave  this  world,  my 
work,  my  pleasure,  my  goods,  and  be  no  more  seen. 
Henry  Kirke  White’s  lines  seem  wrung  from  the  very 
heart  of  humanity : 


232 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


“  Yes,  I  must  die — I  feel  that  1  must  die, 

Yet  do  I  feel  my  soul  recoil  within  me 
As  I  contemplate  the  dim  gulf  of  death, 

The  shuddering  void,  the  awful  blank  futurity. 

«  •  •  •  •  •  • 

“  And  it  is  hard 

To  feel  the  hand  of  death  arrest  my  steps, 
Throw  a  chill  blight  o’er  all  my  budding  hopes, 
And  hurl  my  soul  untimely  to  the  shades, 

Lost  in  the  gaping  gulf  of  blank  oblivion.” 


To  him  one  of  the  saddest  thoughts  of  death  was  that  he 
should  be  forgotten  by  the  bright  world  of  which  he  then 
seemed  a  vital  part,  that  soon  he  should  be  “  lost  in  the 
gaping  gulf  of  blank  oblivion.”  But  probably  for  most 
of  us  the  chief  alarm  caused  by  the  thought  of  the  grave 
is  the  conviction  that  death  does  not  end  all,  that  we 
must  each  one  appear  before  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth 
to  give  account  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  For  how 
many  would  death  be  robbed  of  its  sharpest  sting  should 
some  Divine  hand  write  over  the  entrances  to  all  our 
burial  grounds  what  infidelity  once  wrote  on  the  portal 
to  Pere  la  Chaise  Cemetery,  “  Death  is  an  everlasting 
sleep”!  But  in  the  sleep  of  death,  perchance,  we  may 
dream,  perchance,  awake — “  Ay,  there  ’s  the  rub !  ”  Yes, 
there  is  something  in  the  human  breast  which  forces  us 
to  set  our  seal  to  the  declaration  of  Holy  Scripture,  “  It 
is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  this  the 
judgment.”  On  this  one  day  in  the  year  let  us  think 
seriously  of  these  things  and  so  prepare  to  meet  our  God. 
The  earnest  words  of  Canon  Liddon  will  help  us  to  realize 
what  it  is  to  die  and  to  meet  God :  “  Every  man  who  be¬ 
lieves  that  God  exists,  that  he  himself  has  a  soul  which 
does  not  perish  with  the  body,  knows  that  a  time  must 
come  when  this  meeting  will  be  inevitable.  In  the  hour 


He  Yielded  up  the  Ghost.  233 

of  death,  whether  in  mercy  or  in  displeasure,  God  looks 
into  the  face  of  His  creatures  as  never  before.  The  veils 
of  sense,  which  long  had  hidden  His  countenance,  are 
then  stripped  away ;  and  as  spirit  meets  with  spirit  with¬ 
out  the  interposition  of  any  film  of  matter,  so  does  man  in 
death  meet  with  his  God.  It  is  this  which  renders  death 
so  exceedingly  solemn.  Ere  yet  the  last  breath  has  fairly 
passed  from  the  body,  or  the  failing  eyes  have  closed,  the 
soul  has  partly  at  any  rate,  entered  upon  a  world  entirely 
new,  magnificent,  awful.  It  has  seen  beings,  shapes, 
modes  of  existence,  never  even  imagined  before.  But  it 
has  done  more  than  that.  It  has  met  its  God  as  a  dis¬ 
embodied  spirit  can  meet  Him.”  Prepare,  then,  to  meet 
thy  God.  Prepare  to  meet  Him  in  death,  prepare  to 
meet  Him  in  judgment.  That  judgment,  demanded  by 
the  moral  sense  of  mankind,  is  revealed  in  the  Word  of 
God,  “  For  God  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which  He  will 
judge  the  world  in  righteousness  by  that  Man  whom  He 
hath  ordained,  whereof  He  hath  given  assurance  unto 
all  men  in  that  He  hath  raised  Him  from  the  dead.” 
“  The  Lord  is  not  slack  concerning  his  promise,  as 
some  men  count  slackness;  but  is  longsuffering  to  us- 
ward,  not  willing  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all 
should  come  to  repentance.  But  the  day  of  the  Lord 
will  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night ;  in  the  which  the  heavens 
shall  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall 
melt  with  fervent  heat,  the  earth  also  and  the  works  that 
are  therein  shall  be  burned  up.  Seeing  then  that  all  these 
things  shall  be  dissolved,  what  manner  of  persons  ought 
ye  to  be  in  all  holy  conversation  and  godliness.  Look¬ 
ing  for  and  hasting  unto  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God, 
wherein  the  heavens  being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved,  and 
the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat?  Nevertheless 


234 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


we,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for  new  heavens  and  a 
new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  Wherefore, 
beloved,  seeing  that  ye  look  for  such  things,  be  diligent 
that  ye  may  be  found  of  him  in  peace,  without  spot,  and 
blameless.  ” 

May  God  grant  that  when  each  one  of  us  shall  have 
served  Him  in  our  generation  we  may  be  gathered  to  our 
fathers  having  the  testimony  of  a  good  conscience ;  in  the 
communion  of  the  Catholic  Church;  in  the  confidence  of 
a  certain  faith;  in  the  comfort  of  a  reasonable,  religious 
and  holy  hope,  in  favor  with  our  God,  and  in  perfect 
charity  with  the  world;  and  hear  the  voice  of  the  Cruci¬ 
fied  saying,  Come,  ye  blessed  children  of  My  Father,  re¬ 
ceive  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world ! 


THE  CAVE  OF  MACHPELAH. 


EASTER  EVEN. 

“  In  the  cave  that  is  in  the  field  of  Machpelah,  which  is  before  Mamre,  in 
the  land  of  Canaan,  which  Abraham  bought  with  the  field  of  Ephron  the 
Hittite  for  a  possession  of  a  burying-place.” — Gen.  xlix.  30. 

THUS  Israel  gave  commandment  concerning  his  burial. 

Although  he  knew  that  Joseph’s  power  could  secure 
interment  for  him  in  the  most  magnificent  of  Egyptian 
tombs  he  would  nevertheless  make  his  grave  in  the  land 
of  promise.  The  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  tells  us  that  Jacob  was  one  of  those  “  who  died  in 
faith.”  He  believed  the  promise  made  to  Abraham  and 
to  Isaac  that  Canaan  was  the  inheritance  of  God’s  people, 
a  land  in  which  they  should  rule  and  worship,  the  land 
of  the  coming  Shiloh,  a  land  which  was  the  type  and 
promise  of  the  Promised  Land  beyond  the  grave.  There¬ 
fore  he  charged  his  sons,  “  Bury  me  with  my  fathers  in 
the  cave  that  is  in  the  field  of  Machpelah;  ”  for  ”  there,” 
he  continued,  “  they  buried  Abraham  and  Sarah  his  wife ; 
there  they  buried  Isaac  and  Rebekah  his  wife ;  and  there 
I  buried  Leah.  The  purchase  of  the  field  and  of  the  cave 
that  is  therein  was  from  the  children  of  Heth.  And  when 
Jacob  had  made  an  end  of  commanding  his  sons,  he 
gathered  up  his  feet  into  the  bed,  and  yielded  up  the 
ghost,  and  was  gathered  unto  his  people.” 

To  the  ancient  commentators  it  seemed  not  without  a 
poetical  and  spiritual  significance  that  Jacob’s  new  name 
of  Israel,  which  he  won  in  the  wrestling  at  Peniel,  con- 


235 


236  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

tains  “  the  first  letters  of  the  names  of  the  other  five  ” 
who  were  buried  in  the  cave  of  Machpelah — Isaac,  Sarah, 
Rebekah,  Abraham,  Leah  ;  for  us,  however,  his  words  are 
noteworthy  because  there  is  in  them  a  clear  expression  of 
his  confident  faith  in  an  immediate  meeting  with  the  souls 
of  his  kindred.  “  Bury  me  with  my  fathers,”  he  says; 
“  my  dust  shall  rest  with  theirs.”  But  he  also  says,  “  I  am 
to  be  gathered  unto  my  people,”  and  the  historian  adds, 
“  he  yielded  up  the  ghost  and  was  gathered  unto  his 
people.”  His  body  was  not  yet  gathered  to  the  bodies 
of  his  people,  so  if,  at  the  moment  of  death,  he  was 
gathered  to  them  it  must  have  been  in  the  spirit,  in  the 
Paradise  of  the  faithful;  accordingly  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  declares  of  Jacob  and  of  all  those  who  were 
buried  with  him  in  the  cave  of  Machpelah,  “  These  all 
died  in  faith,  not  having  received  the  promises,  but  hav¬ 
ing  seen  them  afar  off,  and  were  persuaded  of  them,  and 
embraced  them.”  In  the  assurance  of  that  faith  Jacob 
met  death  with  perfect  self-possession.  “  He  gathered 
up  his  feet  into  the  bed  ;  ”  he  consented  to  his  departure, 
even  as  Christ  upon  the  Cross  bowed  His  head  in  token 
of  His  consent  to  the  approach  of  death,  and  thus  will¬ 
ingly,  triumphantly,  he  was  gathered  unto  his  people. 

How  calm  and  noble  that  face  looked,  fixed  in  the 
marble  of  death!  The  Jacob-look  had  vanished  from  it; 
and  it  was  stamped  with  the  smile  with  which  the  royal 
Israel-spirit  had  moulded  it  in  its  outward  passage.” 

“  So,  pilgrim,  now  thy  brows  are  cold, 

We  see  thee  what  thou  art ;  and  know 
Thy  likeness  to  the  wise  below, 

Thy  kindred  to  the  great  of  old.” 

During  the  weeks  of  Lent  we  have  been  trying  to  learn 
from  Jacob  how  to  live;  to-day  we  may  learn  from  him 


The  Cave  of  Machpelah. 


237 


how  to  die.  After  “  life’s  long  Lent”  the  world-wearied 
servant  of  God  has  “  entered  into  the  quiet  Easter-eve  of 
faith.”  His  history  is  especially  helpful  to  those  who 
find  it  hard  to  be  good.  From  first  to  last  his  life  was  a 
fierce  and  fiery  struggle  of  the  flesh  against  the  spirit,  and 
of  the  spirit  against  the  flesh.  The  note  of  joy  is  faint. 
The  joylessness  of  his  spiritual  life,  if  somewhat  magni¬ 
fied,  is  yet  traced  to  its  source  in  Arthur  Hugh  Clough’s 
interpretation  of  the  patriarch’s  last  words  to  his  sons: 


“  Ah  me  !  this  eager  rivalry  of  life, 

This  cruel  conflict  for  pre-eminence, 

This  keen  supplanting  of  the  dearest  kin, 

Quick  seizure  and  fast  unrelaxing  hold 
Of  vantage-place  ;  the  stony,  hard  resolve, 

The  chase,  the  competition,  and  the  craft 
Which  seems  to  be  the  poison  of  our  life, 

And  yet  is  the  condition  of  our  life  ! 

To  have  done  things  on  which  the  eye  with  shame 
Looks  back,  the  closed  hand  clutching  still  the  prize  ! 
Alas  !  What  of  all  these  things  shall  I  say  ? 

Take  me  away  unto  Thy  sleep,  O  God  ! 

I  thank  Thee  it  is  over,  yet  I  think 
It  was  a  work  appointed  me  of  Thee. 

How  is  it?  I  have  striven  all  my  days 
To  do  my  duty  to  my  house  and  hearth, 

And  to  the  purpose  of  my  father’s  race, 

Yet  is  my  heart  therewith  not  satisfied.” 


Yes,  the  secret  of  all  Jacob’s  dissatisfaction  and  dis¬ 
quietude  was  his  sin  and  its  penalty,  the  punishment  of 
disobedience  which  “  is  the  other  half  of  sin.”  Endowed 
by  nature  with  the  richest  gifts  of  intellectual  strength 
and  firmness  of  purpose,  he  was  destined  to  be  a  master¬ 
ful,  distinguished  man.  But  he  was  also  born  with  keen 
inclinations  to  seek  self-advancement  at  any  price,  and 


238  The  Bartered  Birthright. 

thus  guile  in  its  multitudinous  forms  became  the  beset¬ 
ting  sin  of  his  life.  It  was  decreed  that  he  should  be  the 
birthright  heir  of  the  promises  of  God,  but  his  father’s 
wilfulness  in  disregarding  the  oracle  from  on  high  tempted 
the  youth  to  secure  his  own  by  fraud  and  the  bartered 
birthright  became  henceforth  at  once  the  bane  and  the 
blessing  of  his  life.  When  God  spoke  to  his  soul  in  the 
Ladder-vision  at  Bethel  he  was  not  disobedient  unto 
the  heavenly  vision ;  he  vowed  his  vow,  consecrated  him¬ 
self  to  the  service  of  God,  and  all  that  follows  is  the  rec¬ 
ord  of  his  efforts  to  keep  that  vow.  And  the  Spirit  of  God 
helped  him  in  his  struggle,  by  encouragement,  by  chas¬ 
tisement,  and  never  forsook  him.  There  can  be  few  of 
us  who  have  had  to  meet  greater  hindrances  in  our  efforts 
to  be  true  to  God  and  to  the  highest  ideals  of  mankind. 
But  in  the  end  he  triumphed  over  all  the  foes  of  his  soul. 
If  we  are  steadfast,  we  also  may  share  his  victory. 

They  “  buried  him  in  the  cave  of  the  field  of  Mach- 
pelah.”  On  Easter  Even  our  thoughts  turn  to  another 
cave  where  “  they  laid  Jesus.”  In  that  cavern  tomb, 
which  was  also  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  the  worn  and 
lacerated  body  of  the  Lord  reposed  in  peace  through  the 
long  Jewish  Sabbath  Day.  Our  Saviour’s  body  was  in 
the  cave;  His  soul  was  gathered  to  His  people.  He  was 
with  His  people,  all  the  departed,  who  awaited  the  resur¬ 
rection  and  the  final  judgment.  He  promised  to  meet 
the  penitent  thief  this  day  in  Paradise.  And  Paradise  is 
not  Heaven,  for  on  Easter  morning  He  said  to  the  Mag¬ 
dalene,  “  Touch  me  not !  I  have  not  yet  ascended  to  My 
P'ather. ”  He  did  not  go  to  Heaven,  the  abode  of  the 
Father,  until  He  assumed  His  risen  body.  On  Easter 
Even,  therefore,  we  see  the  meaning  of  the  words  of  the 
Creed,  “  He  descended  into  Hell,”  into  the  abode  of  the 


The  Cave  of  Machpelah. 


239 


departed,  where  all  souls  wait  the  resurrection  and  the 
judgment  of  the  last  day. 

Can  we  doubt  that  on  the  first  Easter  Even  Jacob  saw 
Christ,  and  received  the  full  answer  to  his  dying  prayer, 

I  have  waited  for  Thy  salvation,  O  Lord!  ” 

Jacob’s  soul  was  in  Paradise;  on  earth  his  body  was 
being  prepared  for  Machpelah.  “  And  Joseph  com¬ 
manded  his  servants  the  physicians  to  embalm  his  father: 
and  the  physicians  embalmed  Israel.  And  forty  days 
were  fulfilled  for  him;  for  so  are  fulfilled  the  days  of 
those  which  are  embalmed.  .  .  .  And  Joseph  went 

up  to  bury  his  father:  and  with  him  went  up  all  the  serv¬ 
ants  of  Pharaoh,  the  elders  of  his  house,  and  all  the 
elders  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  all  the  house  of 
Joseph,  and  his  brethren,  and  his  father’s  house:  only 
their  little  ones,  and  their  flocks,  and  their  herds,  they 
left  in  the  land  of  Goshen.  And  there  went  up  with 
him  both  chariots  and  horsemen :  and  it  was  a  very  great 
company.  And  they  came  to  the  threshing-floor  of 
Atad,  which  is  beyond  Jordan,  and  there  they  mourned 
with  a  great  and  very  sore  lamentation  :  and  he  made  a 
mourning  for  his  father  seven  days.  And  when  the  in¬ 
habitants  of  the  land,  the  Canaanites,  saw  the  mourning 
in  the  floor  of  Atad,  they  said,  This  is  a  grievous  mourn¬ 
ing  to  the  Egyptians:  wherefore  the  name  of  it  was 
called  Abel-mizraim,  which  is  beyond  Jordan.  And  his 
sons  did  unto  him  according  as  he  commanded  them : 
For  his  sons  carried  him  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  and 
buried  him  in  the  cave  of  the  field  of  Machpelah,  which 
Abraham  bought  with  the  field  for  a  possession  of  a 
buryingplace  of  Ephron  the  Hittite,  before  Mamre.” 
Thus  the  mortal  remains  of  the  Prince  of  God  were  laid 
to  rest;  “  and  in  all  probability  they  are  there,  in  a  state 


240 


The  Bartered  Birthright. 


of  perfect  preservation,  unto  this  day.  Many  a  storm  has 
swept  over  them  —  Assyrian,  Egyptian,  Babylonian, 
Grecian,  Roman,  Saracenic,  and  Mohammedan.  But 
nought  has  disturbed  their  quiet  rest;  and  there  ”  they 
await  the  second  advent  of  the  Crucified  and  Risen  Lord. 

For  the  Lord  Himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with 
a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with  the 
trump  of  God:  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first: 
Then  we  which  are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up 
together  with  them  in  the  clouds;  to  meet  the  Lord  in 
the  air:  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord.  Where¬ 
fore  comfort  one  another  with  these  words.” 


THE  END. 


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